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ENGLISH    SOUNDS 

A  BOOK  FOR 
ENGLISH  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 


BY 

WALTER   RIPPMANN 


NEW    YORK 
E.    P.    DUTTON    &   CO. 


PREFACE 

In  many  of  our  schools  great  strides  have  been  made  in 
teaching  the  pronunciation  of  French  and  German.  The 
application  of  phonetics  to  the  practice  of  the  classroom 
has  afforded  the  means  of  teaching  the  foreign  sounds  and 
of  cultivating  clear  and  correct  articulation  in  a  manner 
which  surprises  those  who  had  thought  no  better  result 
could  be  achieved  than  what  is  obtained  by  imitation  of 
the  teacher's  voice. 

The  task  of  the  teacher  in  imparting  the  pronunciation 
of  a  foreign  language  is  no  easy  one.  It  is  rendered  all 
the  more  difficult  when  (as  is  too  often  the  case)  the  boys 
and  girls  who  are  starting  the  foreign  language  have 
not  been  taught  the  sounds  of  the  mother  tongue  in  an 
orderly  way. 

It  is  time  that  the  spoken  language  should  be  restored 
to  honour.  Various  societies  are  urging  this,  and  much 
care  is  devoted  to  elocution;  but  progress  is  hampered 
because  there  is  no  simple  book  on  English  sounds  that 
can  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  boy  or  girl. 

The  need  of  such  a  book  has  become  more  and  more 
urgent,  and  I  have  written  English  Sounds  to  provide 
teachers  with  an  introduction  to  English  phonetics  in 
simple  language  and  with  the  least  possible  number  of 
technical  terms.  It  should  not  be  beyond  the  pupils  who 
have  not  yet  begun  the  first  foreign  language ;  at  the  same 
time  I  hope  it  will  not  be  found  devoid  of  interest  for 
older  boys  and  girls. 


393927 


IV  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

Those  who  wish  to  acquire  some  further  knowledge  of 
the  subject  may  derive  advantage  from  a  perusal  of  the 
Sounds  of  Spoken  English,  with  Specimens,  issued  in  this 
series  in  which  all  the  books  for  teaching  foreign  languages 
contain  phonetic  transcriptions.  (The  signs  employed  in 
transcribing  French,  German,  Spanish  and  Latin,  as  well 
as  English,  sounds  are  those  of  the  International  Phonetic 
Association.)  For  class  use  the  English  Sound  Chart  in 
this  series  will  be  found  convenient. 

There  is  no  need  to  add  hints  on  the  use  of  this  book,  as 
it  explains  itself.  Further  exercises  will  suggest  them- 
selves to  every  teacher.  The  pupils,  too,  may  be  trusted 
to  co-operate  eagerly  in  the  study  of  speech  sounds  when 
once  its  great  interest  has  been  brought  home  to  them. 
They  will  learn  to  discriminate  sounds  which  they  had  not 
noticed  before ;  bad  pronunciation  will  shock  them  as  it 
had  never  done ;  and  they  will  come  to  esteem  the  spoken 
word  and  help  to  increase  the  beauty  of  our  language. 

Too  often  in  our  classrooms  voices  are  faint  or  shrill, 
harsh  or  nasal,  and  words  are  slurred  and  spoilt ;  and  many 
when  their  school  days  are  over  still  talk  with  an  unpleasant 
voice  and  mutilate  the  language.  May  this  little  book 
find  its  way  into  many  a  classroom  and  help  to  produce 
a  generation  with  clear  and  vigorous  speech. 

WALTER  RIPPMANN. 

Easter  1911 


ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

It  is  quite  a  long  time  since  we  learnt  to  speak ;  it  was  1 
from  Mother  and  Father  and  Nurse  that  we  learnt  it.  They 
did  not  give  us  regular  lessons ;  they  just  talked  to  us,  and 
we  copied  them  as  well  as  we  could.  At  the  very  begin- 
ning we  were  not  able  to  say  everything  they  did.  Some- 
times they  used  long  words  and  we  cut  them  short ;  they 
said  'beautiful'  and  we  said  'boofle.'  Sometimes  they 
made  sounds  that  we  could  not  imitate,  and  we  used 
sounds  that  seemed  to  us  easier :  they  said  *  thumb '  and 
we  said  '  fum.' 

After  a  time,  when  we  had  learnt  to  talk  pretty  well, 
we  went  to  school,  and  then  we  had  regular  lessons.  The 
first  thing  we  had  to  do  now  was  to  learn  to  read  and 
write,  and  this  took  some  time ;  but  if  we  had  not  learnt 
it,  all  books  would  have  been  closed  to  us,  and  we  should 
have  remained  uneducated.  We  might  have  learnt  a  good 
deal  without  books, — singing  and  drawing  and  making 
things  with  our  hands;  but  that  is  not  enough.  We 
should  have  missed  a  great  deal  if  we  had  been  unable 
to  read ;  and  how  awkward  it  would  be,  too,  if  we  had 
not  learnt  to  write. 

Now  when  we  write  we  are  really  doing  a  very  wonder-  2 
ful  thing :  putting  the  language  on  paper.  When  we 
speak,  our  words  reach  only  those  who  can  hear  us ;  but 
when  we  write,  our  words  can  be  sent  ever  so  far,  to  the 
other  end  of  the  world.  When  words  are  printed,  they 
reach  hundreds  and  thousands  of  people. 


2  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

How  is  this  wonderful  thing  done  1  By  means  of  letters. 
In  English  there  are  26  letters,  and  these  have  a  long 
history.  The  Romans,  more  than  2000  years  ago,  used 
almost  all  the  letters  that  we  use  now ;  and  they  were 
used  by  other  nations  before  them. 

The  Chinese  have  letters  too ;  but  they  are  peculiar 
letters,  for  each  one  stands  for  a  whole  word.  How  many 
such  letters  we  should  require  in  English  !  We  may  well 
be  sorry  for  the  poor  Chinese  boys  and  girls  who  have  to 
learn  so  many  signs  for  reading  and  writing. 


3  We  are  very  fortunate  in  having  a  different  kind  of 
alphabet.  Our  letters  do  not  stand  for  whole  words,  but 
for  sounds. 

But  does  the  same  letter  always  stand  for  the  same 
sound  in  English  ?  And  is  the  same  sound  always  written 
in  the  same  way?  If  that  were  so,  it  would  be  very  easy 
to  read  and  to  write  English.  Let  us  try  to  answer  these 
questions. 


The  first  question  is :  Does  the  same  letter  always  stand 

for  the  same  sound  1 

Just  look  at  these  examples  of  English  spelling  : 

cat,   city ;   get,   gem ;   e.cact,    extra  ;   ba?id,  barik ;   m^n, 

human,  master ;  bin,  bind ;  woman,  women  ;  show,  cow. 

The  second  question  is :  Is  the  same  sound  always 
written  in  the  same  way  ? 

Look  at  these  examples  : 

cat,  bitten ;  sit,  city ;  sucA,  hutch ;  bed,  head,  said ;  win, 
women  ;  huys,  lies,  li^^t ;  shows,  goes. 


THE  SPELLING  OF  ENGLISH  WORDS  3 

Sometimes   a  word  contains  letters  that  are  not  pro-  4 
nounced  at  all. 

Which  of  the  letters  in  the  following  woi'ds  are  silent  ? 

knot,  gnaw,  sign,  doubt,  bough,  could,  guard,  buy,  right, 
write,  psalm,  calm,  castle,  handkerchief,  programme,  fatigue, 
taught,  heard,  active. 

Find  other  words  that  contain  silent 


Sometimes  a  letter  is  written  twice  when  once  would  be 
enough.  We  write  almost  with  one  I,  all  with  two ;  but 
we  do  not  pronounce  two  Ts.  Compare  welcome  and  well^ 
big  and  bigger,  sit  and  sitting. 

Find  other  examples. 

This  has  shown  us  that  our  spelling  is  irregular.  We  5 
cannot  tell,  by  seeing  the  letters  of  a  word,  what  the  sounds 
are.  A  foreigner,  who  does  not  know  the  spoken  language, 
has  to  learn  that  g  in  gem  must  not  be  pronounced  in  the 
same  way  as  g  in  get.  We  who  knew  the  spoken  language 
before  we  learnt  to  write  it,  had  to  be  told  that  torite  has  a 
w  in  front,  and  know  a  ^;  we  could  never  have  guessed 
that. 

After  a  good  deal  of  trouble  we  learnt  these  and  many- 
other  things,  until  we  could  spell  without  making  many 
mistakes.  We  can  say  what  letters  any  ordinary  word 
contains ;  but  can  we  split  up  a  spoken  word  into  the 
sounds  of  which  it  is  made  up?  That  is  what  we  are  now 
going  to  try. 

We  know  that  there   are  26  letters   in   the   alphabet ; 
how  many  sounds  are  there  in  English  speech  ? 
Write  down  as  many  different  sounds  as  you  can  find. 


4  ENGLISH   SOUNDS 

6  We  call  some  of  these  sounds  vowels  and  others  con- 
sonants. 

'  Vowel '  is  another  form  of  '  vocal,'  and  that  means 
'  having  voice.'  '  Consonant '  means  '  sounding  with  ' 
something.  Once  upon  a  time  people  thought  that  only 
a  vowel  could  be  uttered  by  itself  (as  when  we  call  out 
'  O ! '),  and  that  a  consonant  could  not  be  uttered  apart 
from  a  vowel.  But  it  can.  When  we  want  to  stop  some- 
body from  making  a  noise,  we  sometimes  say  '  Sh  ! '  We 
have  all  read  Rudyard  Kipling's  story  of  the  Cat  that 
Walked  by  Himself  :  when  the  milkpot  that  stood  by  the 
fire  cracked  in  two  pieces  it  went  '  Ffft ! '  and  we  can  say 
that  quite  easily.  And  in  Andersen's  tale  of  the  Nightin- 
gale we  read  that  the  Emperor  of  China  had  a  Cavalier 
who  was  so  grand  that  when  anybody  of  lower  rank  put  a 
question  to  him,  he  merely  answered  '  P  ! ' — which  was 
rude  of  him,  but  at  any  rate  helps  to  show  that  a  consonant 
can  be  uttered  by  itself. 

Still,  we  may  go  on  using  the  terms  '  vowel '  and 
*  consonant '  because  it  is  convenient  to  do  so. 

7  'Vowel,' we  saw,  meant  'having  voicu.'  The  ordinary 
meaning  of  '  voice '  we  know ;  but  we  are  now  going  to 
learn  about  a  special  meaning  of  this  word. 

When  we  say  s  (as  in  hissing)  and  z  (as  in  buzzing)  like 
this  : 

s  —  z  —  s  —  z  —  s, 
not  making  any  pauses  in  between,  we  notice  that  there  is 
a  buzzing  sound  every  time  we  say  z. 
We  notice  the  same  when  we  say  : 

f_v— f— V  — f. 
Here  there  is  a  buzzing  every  time  we  say  v. 


VOICED  AND  VOICELESS  SOUNDS  5 

We  all  know  what  it  is  to  whisper.  Let  us  say  ah  !  in 
our  ordinary  voice,  and  then  whisper  it. 

all :   ordinary  voice — whisper — ordinary  voice — whisper. 

Every  time  we  say  it  in  our  ordinary  voice  we  again 
notice  a  sort  of  buzz.    This  '  buzzing '  is  what  we  call  voice. 

A  sound  like  z,  v  or  ah  (in  the  ordinary  voice)  is 
voiced.     A  sound  like  s,  f  or  whispered  ah  is  voiceless. 

Let  us  put  our  Imnds  against  our  ears  and  say  those  sounds 
again  :  s  —  z  —  s  — z  —  s;  f  —  v  —  f  —  v  —  f;  ah: 
ordinary  voice — whisper — ordinary  voice — whisper. 

fFe  notice  the  '  buzzing '  ar  vibration  still  better  now. 

Put  a  metal  ring  (a  curtain  ring  will  do)  irito  a  pill  box  or 
a  metal  matchbox.  Hold  it  against  the  side  of  the  throat  while 
you  utter  a  voiced  sound.  Notice  Iww  the  vibration  imikes  it 
rattle. 

What  gives  rise  to  this  vibration  1 

We  use  breath  in  speaking.     Is  it  the  breath  as  we  draw  8 
it  in  (inhale  it),  or  as  we  give  it  out  (exhale  it) '?     Where 
does  the  breath  come  from  ? 

Slaioly  Jill  your  lungs  with  air,  keeping  your  mouth  shut. 
How  long  can  you  hold  your  breath  ? 

Quickly  inhale  a  good  supply  of  air  through  the  nose ;  then 
exhale  slowly  through  the  mouth.     Do  this  several  times. 

Again  inhale  quickly  through  the  nose,  and  as  you  exhale  say 
ah  in  your  ordinary  voice.  (There  is  no  need  to  shout.)  Make 
the  ah  last  as  long  as  possible. 

Do  this  again,  but  say  z  w/ien  you  exhale,  making  the  sound 
last  as  long  as  possible. 

Do  the  same  with  v. 


6  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

9  When  the  breath  leaves  the  lungs  it  passes  out  through 
the  windpipe.  At  one  part  of  the  windpipe  (men  have  the 
'  Adam's  apple '  just  there)  there  is  a  marvellous  contriv- 
ance by  which  the  passage  can  be  made  quite  wide  or  closed 
completely.  From  left  and  right  two  lips  can  be  drawn 
together.  When  we  are  not  talking,  but  just  breathing, 
they  remain  apart ;  just  as  the  lips  of  the  mouth  are  apart 
when  we  breathe  through  the  mouth.  When  we  require  a 
great  deal  of  breath  (for  instance,  when  we  are  blowing), 
they  separate  more  still,  so  as  to  leave  a  large  passage  for 
the  air. 

These  *  lips  in  the  throat '  are  called  the  vocal  chords  ; 
but  we  must  not  think  that,  because  '  chords  '  sounds  like 
'  cords,'  they  resemble  strings  stretched  across  the  throat. 

10  When  these  vocal  chords  are  placed  against  each  other, 
not  very  tightly,  and  we  let  breath  out  of  the  lungs,  it 
forces  them  apart  for  a  moment,  and  it  does  this  again  and 
again.  It  is  done  very,  very  quickly.  We  can  do  just  the 
same  thing  with  our  lips ;  we  sometimes  do  it  when  we  feel 
very  cold,  or  when  we  have  just  swallowed  some  nasty 
medicine,  and  babies  often  do  it,  just  for  the  fun  of  the 
thing.     It  is  called  a  lip  trill. 

Trill  your  lips  half  a  dozen  times. 

We  have  made  our  lips  vibrate,  and  the  vocal  chords 
vibrate  very  much  in  the  same  way ;  this  vibration  of  the 
vocal  chords  is  what  we  call  voice.  They  vibrate  when  we 
say  V  or  z  or  ah  (in  our  ordinary  voice). 

Which  of  the  following  sounds  are  voiced  and  which  are 
voiceless?  f,  b,  1,  s,  k,  d,  g,  v,  p,  z. 

Underline  the  letters  that  stand  foi'  voiceless  sounds : 
sisi/er,  brother,  son,  daughter,  uncle,  aunt,  nej^ew",  niece. 


STOPS  AND  CONTINUANTS  7 

We  are  going  to  talk  about   the  vowels  later ;   about  1 1 
the  consonants  we  now  know  that  they  may  be  voiced 
or  voiceless.     Let  us  look  at  them  in  another  way. 

We  can  let  the  breath  pass  out  through  the  mouth.  Let 
us  exhale — then  say  '  P  ! '  like  the  Cavalier  of  the  Emperor 
of  China — then  exhale.  Let  us  try  to  say  '  P ! '  and 
nothing  else,  like  this  : 

exhale  —  p  —  exhale  —  p  —  exhale. 

Now  instead  of  exhaling,  we  are  going  to  say  a  long  all : 

ah  —  p  —  ah  —  p  —  ah. 

We  notice  that  every  time  we  say  p,  the  lips  close  and  the 
breath  is  stopped.     Let  us  say  once  more ; 

ah  —  p  —  ah  —  p  —  ah, 

stopping  the  breath  as  long  as  possible  at  the  p. 

Now  let  us  say  f  instead  of  p,  like  this  : 

ah  —  f  —  ah  —  f —  ah. 

This  time  the  breath  is  not  stopped.  It  continues  to  make 
its  way  out ;  but  it  does  not  go  out  so  easily  for  f  as  it 
does  for  ah,  because  for  f  the  passage  has  been  made 
quite  narrow  by  the  upper  teeth  and  the  lower  lip  coming 
together.  We  notice  then  that  p  and  f  are  different  kinds 
of  sounds. 

Sounds  like  p,  for  which  the  breath  is  stopped,  we  call 
stops. 

Sounds  like  f,  for  which  the  breath  is  not  stopped  and 
which  allow  it  to  continue  on  its  way  out  (the  passage 
having  been  narrowed,  but  not  closed  altogether),  we  call 
continuants. 


8  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

Which  of  the  foUmoing  sounds  are  stops  and  which  are 
continuants  ?  g,  p,  z,  t,  sh,  b,  v,  k,  f,  s,  d,  1,  w. 

In  the  following  words  underline  the  stops  once  and  the  con- 
tinuants twice : 

fit,  bad,  push,  call,  zest,  shake,  white. 

Consonants,  then,  may  be  produced  by  closing  the 
passage  through  which  the  breath  passes  (when  we  get 
stops),  or  by  narrowing  it  (when  we  get  continuants). 
When  the  passage  is  neither  closed  nor  narrowed,  we 
get  vowels. 

12  There  are  some  other  sounds  that  we  have  not  yet  talked 
about,  which  are  rather  peculiar :  m,  n  and  ng  (as  in  ring). 
How  are  these  produced  ? 

Let  us  say  : 

ah  —  m  —  ah  —  m  —  ah. 

We  notice  that  the  lips  are  closed,  just  as  in  : 

ah  —  p  —  ah  —  p  —  ah. 

Is  the  sound  m  voiced  or  voiceless  ?  It  is  voiced ;  then 
is  it  the  same  as  the  b  in  : 

ah  —  b  —  ah  —  b  —  ah  ? 

What  is  the  difference  between  m  and  b?  It  is  this: 
when  we  say  b  the  breath  is  stopped ;  but,  although  the 
lips  are  closed  for  m,  we  can  say  a  very  long  m. 

Do  so. 

If  we  can  dwell  on  it  like  this,  it  is  clear  that  the  breath 
has  not  been  stopped.  The  lips  are  closed.  Where  does 
the  breath  pass  out  ?  Through  the  nose.  Why  does  the 
breath  then  not  go  out  through  the  nose  when  we  say  b  ? 


BREATHING  THROUGH  NOSE  AND  MOUTH 


To  find  the  answer  we  must  get  some  idea  of  the  inside  13 
of  the  mouth.  If  we  touch  the  roof  of  the  mouth  (the 
palate)  with  our  finger,  we  notice  it  is  hard ;  as  we  pass 
the  finger  farther  back,  it  is  soft.  We  call  the  front, 
hard  part  of  the  roof  of  the  mouth  the  hard  palate ;  and 
the  back,  soft  part,  the  soft  palate.  Now  let  us  take  a 
mirror,  open  the  mouth  wide  and  have  a  good  look  at  the 
inside  of  it.  (If  we  turn  our  back  to  the  light,  the  mirror 
will  throw  light  into  the  mouth,  so  that  we  can  see  it 
better.)  We  notice  that  the  end  of  the  soft  palate  hangs 
down  and  at  the  very  end  there  is  something  that  looks 
like  a  little  grape.  (The  Latin  word  for  a  little  grape  is 
'  uvula,'  and  that  is  what  we  call  the  very  end  of  the  soft 
palate.)     This  end  can  be  moved  backwards  and  forwards. 

Open  ymir  mouth  wide  and  hold  a  mirror  befare  it^  so  that 
you  can  see  wliat  is  going  on  inside.  Exhale  through  the  mouth 
and  through  the  nose  in  turn,  like  this : 

mmdh  —  nose  —  mouth  —  nose  —  mo^dh. 

If  you  keep  your  tongue  out  and  do  not  move  it,  ym.i  will 
then  see  how  the  soft  'palate  moves  hack  lohen  you  breathe  through 
the  mouth  and  foi'ward  when  you  breathe  through  the  nose. 


End  of 
soft  palate 


End  of 
soft  palate 


The  breath  passing 
through  the  mouth  only,  through  mouth  and  nose. 


lO 


ENGLISH  SOUNDS 


It  is  by  moving  the  end  of  the  soft  palate  back  or  for- 
ward that  we  can  close  or  open  the  passage  through  the 
nose.  When  we  say  m,  the  breath  is  stopped  at  the  lips  ; 
but  the  end  of  the  palate  is  brought  forward,  so  that  the 
breath  can  pass  out  through  the  nose. 

The  breath  is  stopped  but  for  m  it  passes 

at  the  lips  for  b,  out  through  the  nose. 


End  of 
soft  palate 


Let  US  say  : 

ah  —  m  —  ah,       ah  —  n  —  ah,       ah  —  ng  —  ah. 

In  each  case  the  breath  is  stopped  on  its  way  through 
the  mouth,  but  continues  to  pass  out  through  the  nose. 

Because  the  nose  is  so  important  for  these  sounds,  we 
call  them  nasals. 

14  Sometimes  we  are  unfortunate  enough  to  have  a  very 
bad  cold,  and  that  stops  the  nose  passages.  Then  we  can- 
not say  these  sounds.  Instead  of  saying  '  Good  morning ' 
to  our  friends,  we  have  to  say  '  Good  bordig ' ;  that  is,  we 
say  b  for  m,  d  for  n,  and  g  for  ng.  This  shows  that  there 
is  some  connection  between  b  and  m,  d  and  n,  g  and  ng. 
We  have  already  seen  that  b  and  m  are  both  voiced,  and  in 
the  case  of  both  the  breath  is  stopped  by  the  lips.  The 
sounds  d,  n,  g,  ng  are  also  voiced  ;  but  where  is  the  breath 
stopped  when  we  utter  these  sounds  ? 


NASALS;    LIP  SOUNDS  ii 

Take  your  mirroi\  open  your  mouth  well  and  say  : 

a  —  d  —  a  —  d  —  a 
a  —  t  — a  —  t  —  a 
a  —  n  —  a  —  n  —  a 

pi'oiwuncmg  a  as  in  father  and  watch  what  happens.    Then  say  : 

a —  g  —  a —  g  —  a 
a —  k  —  a —  k  —  a 
a  —  ng  —  a  —  ng  —  a 

arw^  watch  what  happens. 

We  notice  that  in  both  cases  the  breath  is  stopped  by 
the  tongue ;  but  the  part  of  the  tongue  used  for  d,  t,  n,  is 
nearer  the  end  than  the  part  of  the  tongue  used  for  g,  k,  ng, 
which  is  farther  back.  The  part  we  use  for  d,  t,  n,  is  the 
tip  or  point  of  the  tongue.  We  shall  consider  later  what 
part  of  the  tongue  we  use  for  g,  k,  ng. 

We  are  now  able  to  go  through  the  consonants  one  by  15 
one.     We  shall  begin  with  the  stops  and  nasals ;  and  first 
we  take  the  lip  stops  and  nasal^  that  is,  sounds  in  which 
the  breath  is  stopped  at  the  lips,  namely : 

the  voiced  b, 
the  voiceless  p, 
the  nasal  m. 

We  have  spoken  about  them  and  not  much  remains  to 
be  said. 

Find  wwds  containing  the  somid  b  at  the  beginning  {initially), 
inside  {medially),  at  the  end  {finally).  [Examples :  bed,  table, 
cab.] 


12  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

Find  words  containing  the  sound  p  initially^  medially  and 
finally.     [Examples  :  pet,  taper,  tap.] 

Find  words  in  which  the  letter  b  is  nx)t  p'oruni7iced  \  the  same 
for  p.     [Examples  :  debt,  empty.] 

Find  woi'ds  in  which  the  letter  b  is  doubled ;  the  same  for  p. 
[Examples :  sob,  sobbing  ;  lap,  lapping.] 

Some  people  use  too  much  effort  in  speaking,  sending 
out  more  breath  than  is  necessary.  Instead  of  saying  p 
they  say  p  followed  by  breath;  for  instance  instead  of 
saying  p  —  e  —  n,  they  say  p  —  [breath]  —  e  —  n. 

16  Find  words  in  which  the  sound  m  occurs  initially ,  medially 
and  finally ;  and  wwrls  in  which  the  letter  m  is  doubled. 

If  we  utter  these  words  we  shall  find  something  fresh  to 
notice.  Take,  for  instance,  Tuat,  hammer^  ham.  We 
remember  that  m  is  a  continuant ;  we  may  let  the  breath 
'  continue '  for  a  moment  only  or  for  some  time.  In  other 
words  a  continuant  may  be  long  or  short.  Is  the  m  in  mat 
of  the  same  length  as  that  in  hammer  and  that  in  ham  1  If 
we  watch  carefully  we  shall  notice  differences  of  length  (or 
quantity,  as  it  is  sometimes  called).  The  initial  m  is  longer 
than  the  medial  m ;  final  m  is  longest  of  all. 

17  The  point  stops  and  nasal  come  next.  They  are  formed 
when  the  tip  or  point  of  the  tongue  rises  and  closes  the 
passage.  What  part  of  the  mouth  does  the  tongue  touch 
when  it  rises  1 

Take  your  mirroi'  and  watch  what  happens  when  you  say : 


Try  to  say  it  with  the  tongue  touching  the  teeth  fm- 1.     Can 
you  notice  any  difference  in  the  soimd  1 


POINT  SOUNDS  13 

In  this  place  too  there  are  three  sounds : 

the  voiced  d, 
the  voiceless  t, 
the  nasal  n. 

Find  words  with  initial^  medial  and  final  d  ;  woi'ds  in  which 
the  letter  d  is  not  p-onounced  or  is  doubled ;  and  the  same  for  t 
and  n. 

Some  people  make  the  same  mistake  of  wasting  breath 
over  t  as  in  the  case  of  p ;  they  say,  for  instance, 

t  —  [breath]  —  e  —  n. 

fFhat  do  yo^i  notice  abmd  the  length  of  initial,  medial  and 
filial  n1 

We  may  turn  next  to  a  further  set  of  three  sounds  :  18 

the  voiced  g, 
the  voiceless  k, 
the  nasal  ng. 

How  shall  we  call  them  1  The  breath  is  stopped  inside 
the  mouth.  The  mirror  has  shown  us  that  the  tongue 
rises ;  but  which  psirf'  of  the  tongue  is  it  ?  It  is  not  the 
point ;  for  when  that  rises  we  get  a  point  consonant. 

Take  your  mirrm;  open  your  mouth  well  and  say  key  and  cool 
several  times.  Then  whisper  these  words  several  times.  Watch 
the  tongue. 

For  the  sound  k  we  do  not  always  raise  the  same  part  of 
the  tongue.  Sometimes  we  raise  the  front  of  the  tongue 
(as  when  we  say  key)  and  sometimes  the  back  (as  when  we 
say  cool).  [When  the  tongue  lies  at  rest  in  the  mouth,  the 
front  is  under  the  hard  palate,  and  the  back  under  the  soft 
palate.] 


14  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

Say  key — coo  —key — coo  aloud  and  in  a  whisper.  Do  you 
notice  any  difference  in  the  sound  of  the  k  (or  c)  ? 

We  may  then  call  these  three  sounds  the  front  and  back 
stops  and  nasal. 

Find  wwds  with  the  sound  g  occurring  initially,  medially 
and  finally.  [Note  that  gem,  age,  would  not  he  examples  of 
what  we  want.] 

Find  words  in  which  the  letter  g  is  silent,  or  is  doubled. 

Find  words  with  the  sound  k  occurring  initially,  medially, 
and  finully.  [Note  that  the  sound  is  not  always  spelled  k ;  cat 
uill  he  as  good  an  example  of  the  sound  as  kitten.] 

Find  words  in  which  the  letter  k  is  silent,  or  is  doubled. 

Some  people  waste  breath  over  k,  as  they  do  over  p 
and  t. 


19  There  are  some  things  to  notice  about  the  sound  ng. 
We  spell  this  sound  by  means  of  two  letters,  but  it  is  only 
one  sound.  That  is  an  awkward  arrangement.  What  is 
more,  when  we  write  ng  we  do  not  always  mean  this 
sound.     If  we  say  these  words  : 

long,  longer,  engage,  engine 

we  notice  that  ng  stands  for  four  different  things.  In  long 
the  two  letters  stand  for  the  nasal  sound  only ;  and  we 
are  going  to  use  a  special  sign  for  this  in  future  :  t),  that 
is,  an  n  with  the  tail  of  a  g.     In  longer,  ng  has  the  value 

of  T)g. 

What  is  the  value  of  ng  in  the  following  words  ? 
singer,  linger,   Bangor,   hanger,  hunger,  talking,  singe, 
angle,  clin^,  angry,  England,  jingle. 


FRONT  AND  BACK  SOUNDS  15 

Careless  people  sometimes  '  drop  their  g's.'  They  say  20 
Mmtdn'  and  ridin',  instead  of  hwnting  and  riding.  When  we 
come  to  think  about  it,  we  find  that  there  is  no  g  sound 
in  the  ending  -ing  at  all ;  and  that  what  they  really  do  is 
to  say  n  in  place  of  t).  An  odd  thing  is  that  some  quite 
educated  people  (who  ought  to  know  better)  mal?e  this 
mistake,  as  well  as  people  whose  education  has  been 
neglected. 

Sometimes  we  say  t)  when  we  write  n,  as  in  thank,  anchw\ 
tranquil.  Some  people  even  do  so  in  pincushimi,  income; 
but  that  is  careless. 

Find  other  words  in  which  the  letter  n  has  the  value  of  t). 

Here  is  another  rather  common  mistake :  in  order  to  21 
pronounce  the  nasals  m,  n,  t)  we  have  to  let  the  breath 
pass  out  through  the  nose,  and  to  make  this  possible  we 
open  the  passage  to  the  nose  by  moving  the  end  of  the 
soft  palate  forward.  Thus  in  lar)ip,  land,  long,  when  we 
have  finished  the  vowel,  we  open  the  nose  passage  for  the 
nasal.  Some  people  do  this  too  soon,  while  they  are  still 
uttering  the  vowel;  then  the  vowel  is  pronounced  with 
the  breath  passing  through  mouth  and  nose  at  once  (as  in 
the  right-hand  diagram  on  p.  9).  Such  a  vowel  is  nasal, 
and  does  not  sound  at  all  well  in  English  speech.  We 
must  be  careful  not  to  open  the  nose  passage  before  it  is 
required  for  the  nasal  consonant. 

If  you  make  this  mistake,  you  should  practise : 

ma  —  ma,  mama  may  —  maim  foe  —  foam  nay  —  name 

na  —  na,  nana  my  —  mine  sigh  —  sign 

lay  —  lane  low  —  loan  lea  —  lean  dew  —  dune 

flit  —  fling  hat  —  hang  slot  —  long  hut  —  hung 

until  the  vowels  are  no  longer  nasal. 


i6 


ENGLISH   SOUNDS 


22      We  can  now  draw  up  a  little  table  of  the  nine  sounds 
we  have  had : 


voiced 

voiceless 

nasal 


Lips 

Tongue                      ; 

Point 

Front  or  back 

b 

d 

g 

P 

t 

k 

m 

n 

D 

23      We  know  what  is  meant  by  a  continuant. 
Give  some  examples  of  contimmnts. 

We  have  had  voiced  and  voiceless  stops  ;  continuants 
may  also  be  voiced  and  voiceless. 

Arrange  the  continimnts  that  you  have  just  given  in  two 
groups^  acceding  as  they  are  voiced  or  voiceless. 

The  lip  continuant  is  produced  when  the  breath  passes 
between  the  lips  which  have  been  brought  close  together, 
so  that  the  breath  has  to  make  its  way  through  a  narrow 
slit.     As  it  passes  through,  it  makes  a  noise. 

Take  a  piece  of  thick  blotting  paper  and  cut  two  holes  in  it, 
one  the  size  of  a  shilling,  the  other  a  narrow  slit.  Hold  the 
holes  in  front  of  the  lips  {without  actimlly  touching  them)  and 
blow  through  the  holes.  Notice  the  noise  made  when  you  bloio 
through  the  slit. 


LIP  AND  LIP-TEETH  CONTINUANTS  17 

The  voiced  lip  continuant  is  w.     Notice  that  when  we 
say  w  the  back  of  the  tongue  is  raised. 

Find  wwds  containing  the  sound  w  initially^  and  woi'ds  in 
which  tJie  letter  w  is  silent. 

What  is  the  first  sound  of  who,  one  ? 
Read  these  words  : 

Greenwich,  Harwich,  Woolwich,  Norwich  ; 

Keswick,  Warwick ;  Southwark. 

The  letters  qu  stand  for  the  two  sounds  kw. 

Read  these  wmxls  : 

wart,  quart     wick,  quick     wake,  quake 
wail,  quail       west,  quest     will,  quill 
inquest,  conquest  {what  do  yait  notice  about  conquer  ?) 
WTmt  do  you  Twtice  about  quay  1 

Many  of  us  pronounce  the  letters  wh  (in  which^  white,  etc.)  24 
in  just  the  same  way  as  w.  Others  pronounce  it  as  h 
followed  by  w.  Others  again  pronounce  it  like  w,  but 
without  any  'buzzing,'  that  is,  they  utter  the  voiceless  lip 
continuant.  If  we  want  to  have  a  single  sign  for  the  voice- 
less sound  we  may  use  ia,  that  is,  a  w  upside  down. 

Nobody  pronounces  wh  as  w  followed  by  h. 

The   next   continuants   are   v  and   f.      How   are  they  25 
produced  ? 

2'ake  your  mirror  and  watch  your  lips  as  you  say  : 

a  —  V  —  a  —  V  —  a        a  —  f — a  —  f — a. 

We  may  call  v  and  f  lip-teeth  continuants. 

Find  wards  containing  the  sound  f  initially^  medially  and 
finally,  and  words  in  which  the  letter  f  is  doubled. 
How  do  you  pronounce  the  letter  f  m  of  ? 
B 


i8  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

Find  words  containing  the  somid  v  initially  and  medially. 
{The  only  case  of  doubled  v  occurs  in  the  wwd  navvy.) 

Find  pairs  of  words  with  f  and  v,  like  wife — wives,  thief — 
to  thieve. 

26  In  some  words  the  sound  f  is  written  j^h.  When  we 
come  to  think  of  it,  that  is  a  very  strange  spelling.  This 
is  how  it  arose  :  The  Greeks  had  a  number  of  words  with 
ph,  for  instance  the  name  of  Philippos  (our  Philip),  and  at 
one  time  they  really  did  pronounce  them  with  the  sounds 
p  and  h ;  so  that  Philippos  began  p  —  [breath]  —  i  — .  (This 
is  just  the  same  sort  of  p  that  we  talked  about  in  section 
15.)  The  Greeks  had  a  special  sign  (p  for  it.  When  the 
Eomans  wrote  Greek  words  in  their  alphabet  (from  which 
we  obtained  ours)  they  had  no  special  sign  for  this 
p  —  [breath],  so  they  wrote  it  PH,  because  these  were  the 
sounds  they  heard.  In  course  of  time  the  Greeks,  how- 
ever, changed  their  pronunciation,  and  used  the  sound  f 
where  the  Greek  spelling  had  a  (p  ;  but  the  Romans  stuck 
to  the  old  spelling  and  so  do  we. 

Find  words  containing  the  letters  ph  pronmmced  as  f. 
How  do  you  p'onmrnce  the  letters  ph  in  nephew  ? 

27  We  now  come  to  three  pairs  of  continuants  in  which  the 
tongue  is  used  for  narrowing  the  passage.  They  are  some- 
times called  the  lisping,  hissing  and  hushing  sounds. 

The  lisping  sounds  are  those  for  which  we  use  the  letters 
th.  There  are  two  :  the  voiced  th  is  the  first  sound  of  this, 
and  the  voiceless  th  is  the  first  sound  of  thing.  We  do  not 
pronounce  the  letters  th  as  t  followed  by  h ;  we  are  going  to 
use  the  sign  S  for  the  voiced  th  and  6  for  the  voiceless  th. 

Find  woi'ds  containing  the  sounds  S  and  0. 

Find  pairs  of  woi'ds  with  B  and  S,  like  breath — to  breathe. 


LISPING  SOUNDS  19 

How  did  th  come  to  be  used  as  the  spelling  of  these  con- 
tinuants? We  have  already  seen  how^/i  came  to  represent 
f ;  and  the  explanation  of  th  is  similar.  The  Greeks  had  a 
real  th  (that  is,  the  sound  t  followed  by  the  sound 
h)  in  such  words  as  Theodoras  (our  Theodoi'e,  which 
really  means  'God's  gift'),  and  they  had  the  sign  B  for 
this  t  pronounced  with  much  breath.  As  we  have  seen, 
the  Romans  wrote  Greek  words  in  their  alphabet.  As 
they  had  no  special  sign,  they  used  the  letters  th,  because 
these  were  the  sounds  they  heard.  In  course  of  time  the 
Greeks  changed  the  pronunciation  of  their  6,  giving  it  the 
sound  of  our  th  in  Theodore;  but  the  Romans  kept  the 
spelling  to  which  they  were  accustomed,  and  we  have 
followed  their  example. 

Where  is  the  passage  narrowed  for  these  sounds  1  28 

Say : 

a  —  S  —  a  —  S  —  a        a  —  9  —  a  —  6  —  a 

mid  notice  what  happens. 

The  breath  passes  out  between  the  tongue  and  the  upper 
teeth.  If  we  push  our  tongue  between  our  teeth,  and  let 
the  breath  through,  we  are  bound  to  say  5  or  6,  That  is 
the  way  to  t^aach  the  lisping  sounds  to  foreigners,  who  often 
find  it  difficult  to  make  them.  Babies,  and  some  boys  and 
girls, — and  even  some  grown-up  people, — find  it  difficult  too. 
They  often  use  v  or  f  instead.  For  S  and  6  the  breath 
passes  between  the  upper  teeth  and  the  soft  flesh  of  the 
tongue ;  for  v  and  f  the  breath  passes  between  the  upper 
teeth  and  the  soft  flesh  of  the  lower  lip.  That  is  why  they 
are  rather  alike,  and  why  people  use  v,  f,  for  3,  0. 

Why  is  it  easier  to  see  how  v,  f  are  pioduced  than  how  5,  6 
are  produced  ? 


20  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

29  The  hissing  sounds  are  the  voiced  z  and  the  voiceless  s. 
Say: 

a  —  z  —  a  —  z  —  a         a  —  s  —  a  —  s  —  a 

and  notice  what  happens. 

The  passage  is  narrowed  by  means  of  the  tongue,  which 
is  raised  to  the  roof  of  the  mouth.  A  peculiar  thing  is  that 
the  breath  does  not  pass  through  a  slit,  as  it  does  for  the 
continuants  we  have  had  so  far.  For  s  or  z  the  point  of 
the  tongue  is  shaped  in  such  a  way  that  it  forms  a  little 
channel  in  the  middle.  The  breath  is  not  allowed  to  spread 
from  left  to  right,  but  is  directed  to  one  point,  like  a  jet  of 
water,  and  '  plays '  upon  the  middle  of  the  teeth. 

We  find  this  quite  easy,  because  we  have  done  it  so  often. 
Babies  find  it  very  hard,  and  take  some  time  to  learn  it. 
Some  children  do  not  place  their  tongue  in  the  right  way, 
but  push  it  forward  ;  then  they  lisp,  which  is  not  at  all 
'  pretty '  (as  foolish  people  sometimes  say  it  is). 

If  you  have  this  had  way  of  saying  s,  try  your  best  to  learn 
how  to  speak  without  lisping.     Begin  with  : 

s  —  1  —  s  —  1  —  s  —  i       i  —  s  —  i  —  s  —  i  —  s 
lifting  up  the  point  of  the  tongue  as  much  as  you  can.     Get  others 
to  tell  you  if  your  s  sounds  right.    Practise  it  with  other  vowels  also. 
Deal  with  your  z  in  the  same  way.     Then  you  may  test  yowrself 
hy  saying  : 

Is  this  smith's  son  a  smith  too  ? 

This  is  just  as  thick  as  that. 

The  Leith  police  dismisseth  us. 

30  The  letter  s  is  not  used  only  for  the  sound  s ;  it  often 
stands  for  z. 

W^hat  is  the  value  of  the  letter  s  i7i  the  following  words  ? 
dogs,  cats,  hits,  hides,  playj,  backs,  beds,  bets,  goes. 
Can  you  find  any  rule  ? 


HISSING  SOUNDS  21 

JVhat  is  the  value  of  the  letter  s  in  the  following  wwds  ? 

(He)  used  (a  brush) ;  (he)  used  (to  do  it) ;  (I  have  no) 
use  (for  this).  (This  is  getting)  loose ;  (take  care  you  do 
not)  lose  (it).  (He)  refused  (it).  (There  was)  refuse  (in 
the  street).     Close  (the  door).     (He  watched  him)  closely. 

As  this  was  his.     He  has  seen  us. 

The  letter  c  is  sometimes  used  with  the  value  of  s. 

Wliat  is  the  value  of  c  in  the  following  words  1 

call,  city,  cut,  cease,  corn,  acid,  scene,  cat,  crew,  acute, 
centre,  cot,  acre,  cost,  curious,  cistern,  cow,  cell,  receive, 
clown,  scorn,  sceptre. 

Find  the  rule. 

The  letter  x  represents  two  sounds,  but  not  always  the  31 
same  two  sounds. 

Say  the  following  iVo^'ds: 

example,  exercise,  exert,  extent,  extreme,  excellent, 
exhaust,  exist,  express,  exceedingly,  exorbitant,  external. 

The  sounds  are  sometimes  voiceless  (  =  ks),  sometimes 
voiced  (  =  gz). 

Can  you  find  any  rule  for  this  ? 

Say  the  following  itords : 

box,  tax,  six,  fox,  vex,  hoax,  sex,  fix,  text,  mixture. 

Except  in  the  case  of  ex-,  the  letter  x  at  the  end  of 
words  and  before  t  always  stands  for  the  voiceless 
sounds  ks, 

box  rhymes  with  cocks  ;  find  rhymes  to  six,  vex,  hoax. 

There  are  some  words  (mostly  proper  names,  such  as 
Xerxes,  XeTwphon)  that  begin  with  x;  it  is  then  pronounced 
as  the  one  sound  z. 


22  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

32  There  are  two  hushing  sounds.  The  voiceless  sound  is 
written  sh  in  shut,  the  voiced  is  written  s  in  pleasure.  We 
are  going  to  use  the  sign  $  for  the  voiceless  hushing  sound, 
and  3  for  the  voiced  sound. 

Say  several  times : 

a  —  S  —  a  —  S— a  a— 5  —  a  —  5— a 

Watch  what  the  tongue  does  when  ymt  utter  these  soimds. 

The  passage  for  the  breath  is  again  narrowed  by  the 
tongue ;  but  this  time  it  is  the  part  behind  the  point  (we 
call  it  the  blade  of  the  tongue)  which  rises  for  the  narrow- 
ing. The  breath  does  not  pass  out  through  a  little  channel 
in  the  tongue,  as  was  the  case  with  s,  but  spreads  out.  It 
is  not  directed  against  the  middle  of  the  teeth,  but  blows 
against  all  the  front  teeth. 

33  The  voiceless  sound  J  is  spelt  in  many  ways. 

In  the  following  words  underline  the  letters  which  have  the 
value  of  5  : 

sure,  mission,  nation,  chandelier,  ocean,  partial,  censure, 
conscience,  anxious,  sugar,  social,  passion,  vicious,  mansion, 
luxury,  machine,  fashion. 

The  letters  ch  sometimes  have  the  value  of  J ;  but  usually 
they  stand  for  two  sounds. 

Say: 

hush,  such  wish,  which  shin,  chin 

The  first  sound  is  t,  and  this  is  sometimes  written  too, 
as  in  hutch,  witch. 

What  do  the  letters  ch  stand  for  in  the  following  wards  ? 

chat,  chagrin,  watch,  chord,  check,  sachet,  chamber, 
Christian,  brooch,  echo,  chill,  church,  technical. 

Find  as  maiiy" rhymes  as  you  can  to  the  following  wm'ds : 
catch,  hitch,  watch,  fetch. 


HUSHING  SOUNDS  23 

The  voiced  5  does  not  occur  so  commonly  as  the  voiceless  34 
sound.     It  is  generally  written  s ;  very  rarely  z. 

Say : 

vision,  evasion,  pleasure  (find  same  rhymes  to  this  wm'd), 
collision,  erosion,  azure,  seizure. 

It  is  fairly  common,  however,  in  combination  with 
another  sound. 

Say: 

leisure,  ledger ;  vision,  pigeon ;  evasion,  contagion. 

The  combination  of  voiced  dj  reminds  us  of  the  voice- 
less tj. 

Say. 

edge,  stretch  ridge,  flitch  budge,  hutch 

journey,  churn         jest,  chest  jump,  chump 

The  sounds  d5  are  variously  written. 

In  the  following  words  imderline  the  letters  that  have  the 
value  of  dj. 

jet,  gem,  age,  ledge,  pigeon,  lodge,  jolt,  engine,  jut, 
bridge,  aged,  college,  vegetable. 

It  may  seem  rather  odd  that  we  should  use  the  '  hushing ' 
sounds  when  we  write  s  or  t,  a^  in  sugar,  action.  In  all 
words  of  this  kind  the  s  (and  the  t  which  was  pronounced 
s)  was  at  one  time  followed  by  i  (or  rather  by  the  sound  of 
y  in  yes);  and  the  s  +  y  became  J.  Stogar  was  pronounced 
syugar  before  it  became  \ugar.  The  s  in  vision  was  pro- 
nounced z,  and  the  z  +  y  became  5 ;  vizyon  became  vi^^on. 

We  may  notice  the  same  change  still  taking  place. 
People  who  speak  badly  say,  not  six  (  =  siks)  years,  but  sikj 
years ;  not  here's  ( =  z)  yours,  but  here  —  5  —  yo^irs ;  not  as 
( =  z)  usiuil  but  aj  itsuul. 


24  ENGLISH   SOUNDS 

Sometimes   we   find   the  'hushing'   sounds   where   the 
spelling  does  not  suggest  them. 
Say  :  nature,  creature,  soldier. 

Distinguish  : 

due,  Jew ;    verdure,  verger ;    (en)dure,  {ad)jure. 

35  We  have  yet  to  notice  something  in  connection  with  the 
voiced  continuants  v,  5,  z,  3. 

iJ  Say  slowly : 

By  your  leave.  He  ceased  to  breathe.  If  you  please. 
What  is  your  age  ? 

Pay  particular  attention  to  the  last  sov/nd  in  each  group  of 
words. 

When  these  voiced  continuants  are  followed  by  a  pause, 
they  are  not  voiced  from  beginning  to  end.  The  'buzzing' 
stops  before  we  reach  the  end,  so  that  it  sounds  as  though 
V  passed  over  into  f,  and  S  into  0,  and  z  into  s,  and  3 
into  5. 

Here  are  some  more  examples : 

Yes,  it  is.  Look  above.  It  is  on  the  ledge.  Shall  we 
bathe  %  Such  a  blaze  !  Cross  the  bridge.  Long  may  you 
live. 

36  The  next  continuant  we  meet  with  is  1. 

Find  words  in  which  the  smmd  1  occurs  initially^  medially 
and  finally  ;  woixls  in  which  the  letter  1  is  silent  and  in  which  it 
is  doubled. 

How  is  the  1  produced  ? 

Open  your  mmith  wide  and  say  : 

a  —  1 — a  —  1  —  a 

Watch  the  tongue  with  your  mirrm\ 


THE  1  SOUNDS  25 

We  see  and  feel  that  the  point  of  the  tongue  touches  the 
roof  of  the  mouth,  but  the  breath  is  not  stopped.  Where 
does  it  pass  out  ?  It  goes  to  left  and  right  of  the  point  of 
the  tongue.  Which  part  of  the  roof  of  the  mouth  does  the 
tongue  touch  1 

Say,  in  a  whisper  : 

lock,  callow,  call  laugh,  fellow,  fell 

I  will,  I  am  willing         cockle,  little,  waggle 

Ymi  can  feel  where  the  tongue  touches. 

The  tongue  does  not  always  touch  the  same  place. 
When  the  sound  1  is  at  the  end  of  a  word,  the  body  of  the 
tongue  rises. 

Say,  mth  the  body  of  the  tongue  flat  /w  the  1 : 

i  — 1  — i— 1  — i 

aThd  with  the  lady  of  the  tongue  rising  as  far  as  possible  /w  the  1 : 

u  —  1  —  u  —  1  —  u 

TVe  may  use  the  sign  \fm'  the  sound  of  1  when  the  body  of  the 
tongue  is  raised.     Say : 

making  as  much  difference  as  you  can  between  them. 

It  does  not  sound  well  to  utter  the  1  with  the  body  of 
the  tongue  raised  ;  we  must  avoid  it. 

If  you  are  inclined  to  make  this  mistake,  practise  these 
sentences : 

She  held  a  milk  pail.  Will  you  tell  this  old  tale  ?  The 
bottle  fell  off  the  table.     He  was  unable  to  toll  the  bell. 

When  consonants  are  followed  by  the  letters  le,  as  in  37 
cattle,  angle,  fickle,  the  1  is  the  chief  sound  of  the  syllable. 
We  then  call  it  syllabic  1. 


26  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

Say  slowly,  separating  the  syllables : 

battles,  uncles,  needles,  struggles. 
Read  the  following : 

idle,  idol ;  able,  label ;  metal,  mettle. 

The  same  thing  happens  sometimes  with  m  and  quite  often 
with  n.  There  is  a  syllabic  m  in  prisms,  and  a  syllabic  n  for 
instance  in  Open  the  dow  and,  when  we  talk  quickly,  the 
word  am?  in  hread  and  butter  becomes  just  a  syllabic  n,  nothing 
more.  We  do  not  let  that  happen  when  we  speak  carefully. 

38  One  of  the  most  interesting — and  also  most  troublesome 
— continuants  is  r. 

Can  you  trill  this  sound  ?  If  so,  trill  it  foi'  as  long  as  you 
can,  several  times.  If  you  cannot  trill  it,  you  should  learn  to  do 
so.  Some  people  learn  it  by  saying  d  —  d  — d  —  d  very  quickly. 
Or  you  may  say  a  long  S,  and  as  you  are  saying  it,  draw  the 
tongue  hack  and  let  the  h'eath  flap  it  to  and  fro.  It  nmy  take 
you  some  time,  but  you  must  persevere. 

Once  upon  a  time,  every  r  was  trilled.  This  was  a  fine 
sound  that  could  be  heard  a  long  way  off,  and  such  sounds 
were  convenient  when  people  lived  much  in  the  open  air 
and  shouted  to  each  other  across  fields.  When  people 
spoke  more  slowly  than  we  do  now,  they  did  not  mind  the 
trouble  of  trilling  all  their  r's. 

Gradually,  however,  people  in  many  countries  would  not 
do  this  any  more.  Some  made  a  sound  like  it,  by  trilling 
the  uvula. 

You  can  see  the  uvula  if  you  open  your  mouth  well :  it  is  the 
far  end  of  the  soft  palate,  and  we  have  already  talked  about  it  in 
section  13.     Try  whether  you  can  trill  it. 

Others  kept  the  trilled  r,  but  only  pronounced  some  of 
the  written  r's,  and  the  rest  became  silent. 


THE  r  SOUNDS  27 

When  the  r  is  trilled,  the  point  is  curled  back,  and  the  39 
breath  makes  it  shake  to  and  fro,  quickly.  Some  people 
curled  the  point  of  the  tongue  back,  and  let  the  breath  pass 
out  between  that  and  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  without  any- 
trilling.  The  passage  was  narrowed  and  a  continuant  was 
the  result. 

It  is  this  untrilled  r  that  most  of  us  pronounce, — when 
we  pronounce  the  letter  at  all.  Notice  that  the  back  of 
the  tongue  is  raised. 

Say  these  wards,  dwelling  on  the  r  as  long  as  possible  : 

bread,  red ;  crown,  round  ;  bright,  right. 

Whisper  them,  again  dwelling  on  the  r. 

Whisper  tree,  dry  ;  here  the  passage  foi'  the  breath  is  parti- 
cularly n/irrow. 

Noio  say  a  long  r,  without  any  other  sound.  {Of  c&iirse  you 
must  not  say  ah,  /a?'  that  is  Twt  the  sound,  but  the  imme  of  the 
letter.) 

Find  woi'ds  containing  the  sound  r  initially  and  medially; 
and  woi'ds  in  which  the  letter  r  is  doubled. 

If  you  hnxyw  how  r  should  be  p'onownced,  but  are  inclined  to 
iise  a  bad  r  instead,  you  may  practise  siich  sentences  as  this : 

Ked  roses  grew  all  around.  i 

Rory  Rumpus  rode  a  rawboned  racer. 
Will  you  play  rounders  or  cricket  or  run  round  the 
playground  1 


Say  the  following  wards  in  which  r  is  silent :  40 

hard,  firm,  mother,  labour,  work,  stir,  form,   murmur, 
beard,  fear,  four,  former.  ^ 

When  do  we  not  pronounce  the  letter  r  % 


28  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

When  the  letter  r  is  at  the  end  of  a  word  and  the  next 
word  begins  with  a  vowel,  the  r  is  generally  pronounced. 
The  r  is  silent  in  a  better  pen,  but  we  pronounce  it  in  better 
ink  It  is  silent  in  Sir  Thomas,  but  pronounced  in  Sir 
Anthony.  It  is  silent  in  whoever  comes,  but  pronounced  in 
whoever  it  be.  We  may  say  that  better  has  two  forms,  one 
with  the  sound  r  added,  the  other  without.  We  may  say 
the  same  of  Sir,  of  ever,  and  other  words. 

Make  up  pairs  of  short  sentences,  in  which  the  following  words 
occur  with  the  r  proTiouTiced  and  with  the  letter  r  silent : 

four,  bear,  or,  care,  for,  stir. 

41  This  possibility  of  having  the  sound  r  in  some  cases  and 
not  in  others  has  led  careless  people  to  add  the  sound  r 
where  it  has  no  business  to  be ;  they  say  the  idea-r-of  it, 
china-r-07-naments,  the  India-r-office.  That  does  not  sound 
very  agreeable. 

Other  people  think  it  necessary  to  put  e  between  a  con- 
sonant and  r ;  for  instance,  they  say  umberella,  Henery  and 
even  Enery.     That  is  dreadful. 

Another  mistake  is  made  by  careless  people,  when  they 
find  two  r's  in  a  word  and  drop  one  of  them.  They  say, 
for  instance,  Febuary,  instead  of  February, 

Make  up  sentences  containing  the  following  words  and  pay 
great  attention  to  their  pronunciation  : 

library,  literary,  temporary,  supernumerary,  itinerary. 

Some  people  say  w  in  place  of  r,  which  seems  very 
strange  until  we  remember  that  there  is  something  common 
to  both  of  them  :  for  r  we  raise  the  back  of  the  tongue,  and 
we  do  the  same  for  w  (see  section  23). 


THE  FRONT  CONTINUANT  29 

For   all   the   continuants   we   have    recently    had,   the  42 
narrowing  was  made  by  means  of  the  point  or  the  blade 
(see  section  32)  of  the  tongue. 

We  had  front  and  back  stops.  Are  there  any  front  and 
back  continuants  1  Yes,  there  are ;  but  in  English  we  only 
use  one  of  them. 

Take  your  mirror y  open  y&u/r  mouth  well  atid  see  what  happens 
when  you  say  :  he,  hue ;  see,  sue ;  ee,  you. 

The  front  of  the  tongue  rises  towards  the  roof  of  the 
mouth  for  the  ee^  and  when  you  say  the  first  sound  of  you 
it  rises  a  little  more,  so  that  the  passage  becomes  quite 
narrow  and  a  continuant  is  the  result.  We  are  going  to 
use  the  sign  j  for  this ;  we  must  not  confuse  it  with  the 
letter  y,  which  stands  for  the  sounds  dj  (see  section  34). 

Find  words  containing  this  sound,  initially  and  after 
consonants. 

The  sound  is  sometimes  written  y.  It  also  sometimes 
forms  the  first  part  of  what  is  written  u,  eu,  ue,  etc.  (see 
section  72). 

Which  of  the  following  words  contain  the  sownd  j  1 

you,  use,  true,  few,  pure,  sure,  rude,  feud,  beauty, 
illumine,  luminous,  Europe. 

Some  people  write  a  youth  (which  is  of  course  right)^  but 
an  university,  an  European,  and  this  is  a  mistake.  We  do  not 
write  an  when  the  next  word  begins  with  a  consonant  and 
the  sound  j  with  which  these  words  begin  is  a  consonant. 

This  sound  sometimes  (for  instance  in  soldier,  nature) 
passes  into  one  of  the  hushing  sounds  which  we  met  in 
section  32.  We  have  all  heard  people  say  dontcherhiow,  and 
wJmtcher  may  call.  Sometimes  I  shall  hit  you  becomes  Ishal 
hitshoo;  and  Tuesday  sounds  like  Choozday.  We  must  be 
careful  not  to  make  such  mistakes. 


30  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

43  There  is  no  back  continuant  in  English,  but  Scotch 
people  have  one.  It  is  the  sound  they  utter  at  the  end  of 
the  word  loch. 

Try  to  produce  this  sound ;  the  sign  fm-  it  is  x,  which  yon 
must  nx)t  confuse  with  the  letter  x.    Say : 


44  There  is  only  one  consonant  left,  and  it  is  the  least 
substantial  of  them  all;  indeed  it  often  disappears  alto- 
gether.    It  is  the  sound  for  which  we  have  the  letter  h. 


ha  —  ha,      hi  —  hi,      hoc  —  hoc, 

first  with  an  oi'dinary  h,  then  making  the  h  as  loud  as  possible. 
Then  do  the  same,  but  in  a  whisper. 

This  is  clearly  a  continuant ;  it  is  the  sound  made  by 
the  breath  passing  through  the  mouth. 

There  are  some  words  in  which  the  initial  letter  h  is 
silent.  Some  in  which  it  used  to  be  silent,  have  recovered 
it.  For  a  long  time  people  pronounced  {h)erb,  {h)umble,  and 
some  still  say  {h)umour,  with  silent  h. 

The  letter  h  is  often  silent  when  it  begins  the  second 
part  of  a  compound  word. 

Read  these  wards : 

shepherd,  forehead,  Clapham,  Sydenham,  exhibit, 
exhaust,  exhilarate,  exhort. 

If  you  find  it  difficult  to  pronounce  the  letter  h  at  the 
begirming  of  woi'ds,  practise  such  sentences  as  these : 

He  had  a  high  hat  on  his  unhappy  head. 
Had  he  ordered  cold  ham  or  cold  lamb  1 
Here's  health  and  happiness  to  all ! 
Up  the  high  hill  he  heaved  a  huge  round  stone. 


SILENT  LETTERS 


31 


In  section  22  we  made  a  table  of  six  stops  and  three  45 
nasals.     We  can  now  draw  up  a  table  of  thirteen  con- 
tinuants (fifteen,  if  we  include  al  and  x) : 


Lips 

Lip 
Teeth 

Tongue 

. 

Point 

Front  '    Back 

w 

V 

^zs 

1 

r 

1 
J 

h 

(M) 

f 

Osl 

1     (X) 

voiced 
voiceless 


We  have  found  instances  of  letters  that  are  not  pro-  46 
nounced.     We  can  arrange  some  of  them  in  groups. 

(i)   Underline  the  silent  letters  in  the  following  woi'ds ; 

handkerchief,  handsome,  Windsor ; 
hasten,  listen,  castle,  rustle,  Christmas; 
empty,  symptom,  attempt ; 
muscle. 

When  three  consonants  come  together,  the  one  in  the 
middle  is  often  silent. 
Find  other  exam-ples. 

(ii)   Underline  the  silent  letters  in  the  following  wards  : 

gnaw,  gnome ; 
knee,  knot,  knuckle ; 
psalm,  pneumatic  ; 
wrist,  wrong. 

When  two  consonants  at  the  beginning  of  a  word  are 
awkward  to  pronounce,  the  first  is  often  silent. 
Find  other  exanvples. 


32 


ENGLISH  SOUNDS 


(iii)   Underline  the  silent  letters  in  the  following  words : 

limb,  tomb,  dumb ; 
hymn,  solemn. 

When  two  consonants  at  the  end  of  a  word  are  awkward 
to  pronounce,  the  second  is  often  silent. 
Find  other  examples. 

(iv)  Underline  the  silent  letters  in  the  following  words  ; 

talk,  yolk ; 

light,  weight,  though ; 

yacht ; 

physiognomy,  sign,  foreign. 

There  are  also  cases  of  silent  I,  gh,  ch,  and  g  within 
words. 

Find  other  examples. 


47  We  must  now  pull  ourselves  together,  for  we  have  come 
to  the  vowels,  and  they  are  very  troublesome.  By  the 
time  we  have  reached  the  last  we  shall  wonder  at  the 
number  of  them,  and  at  the  very  slight  changes  in  the 
tongue  that  give  rise  to  this  variety.  Change  its  position 
by  the  fraction  of  an  inch,  and  the  sound  changes  too. 

For  a  vowel  we  need  'voice,'  using  that  word  in  its 
special  sense  (see  section  7) ;  a  vowel  is  without  voice  only 
when  we  whisper,  and  that  is  exceptional. 


VOWELS 


33 


When  the  breath  has  set  the  vocal  chords  vibrating,  it 
passes  out  through  the  mouth.  Nowhere  is  it  stopped, 
nowhere  is  the  passage  sufficiently  narrowed  to  produce  a 
consonant.  But  the  passage  may  assume  all  kinds  of 
shapes,  according  as  we  move  the  tongue  forward  or  back- 
ward, up  or  down.  We  may  also  open  the  mouth  more  or 
less,  or  alter  the  shape  of  the  lips  in  various  ways ;  but  the 
position  of  the  tongue  remains  our  chief  concern. 

Say  these  words  without  separating  your  teeth :  I  hope  you 
will  come  to-morrow. 

It  is  quite  possible  to  speak  without  separating  the 
teeth  at  all;  the  vowels  can  still  be  quite  easily  distin- 
guished. But  the  words  have  a  kind  of  muffled  sound, 
and  our  speech  is  not  so  distinct  and  agreeable  as  it 
should  be. 

Say  the  sound  a  (as  in  father ;  we  are  always  going  to  use 
the  sign  a  fm'  this  sound),  opening  your  mouth  well.  Then  say 
i  (as  in  marine ;  we  are  always  going  to  use  the  sign  i  for  this 
sound).     Look  at  your  mirror  as  you  repeat : 


Notice  how  fm'  a 
it  rises  for  i. 


a  — 1  —  a  —  1  —  a 

the  tongue  lies  flat  in  the  mouth  and  how 


7 

i0 

^  r-u  1  1 

c 

^ 

1^ 

) 

^ 

1 

^- 

f  Ather 

/ 

fa) 

=A- 

i;i.>rK 

^ 

aw    '"l 

I 

Y 

' '  cqi 

J 

.   L? 

4 

marinelL 

"'   f 

:A- 

34  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

48  When  we  are  breathing  through  the  nose  the  tongue 
lies  quietly  in  the  mouth ;  it  has  much  the  same  position 
when  we  say  a,  only  for  this  we  open  the  mouth  and  let 
the  breath  pass  through  it. 

If  we  draw  the  tongue  back  ever  so  little,  the  sound 
changes :  the  a  then  sounds  a  little  bit  like  the  a  in  allj 
which  is  quite  different  from  the  a  in  father.  Some  people 
do  this  and  pronounce  park  almost  like  poi-k^  and  part 
almost  like  po)-t,  and  fast  almost  as  though  it  were  spelt 
fawst.  We  must  not  draw  the  tongue  back  when  we  say 
this  sound. 

We  must  also  not  push  it  too  far  forward.  If  we  do,  it 
again  changes,  but  in  another  way :  command  then  almost 
rhymes  with  hand,  and  answer  with  /  can,  sir,  and  grant 
with  pant.     This  also  is  a  mistake. 

49  Read  the  following  wards : 

card,  cart  hard,  hart  marred,  mart 

starred,  start  tarred,  tart 

barge,  starch  bars,  farce 

starve,  scarf  halve,  half  calves,  calf 

Observe  the  length  of  the  vowel.  What  connection  is  there 
between  the  length  of  the  vowel  and  the  Hnd  of  consonant  that 
follows  ? 

The  sound  a  is  rarely  quite  short  in  English.  If  we  say 
quickly  We  are  coming  to-7nm'row,  the  word  are  is  often 
pronounced  as  a  short  a.  Some  people  also  have  a  short 
a  in  the  first  syllable  of  translate,  participate. 


THE  SOUNDS  a  AND  a  35 

A  short  a,  with  the  tongue  a  little  forward,  for  which  50 
we  shall  use  the  sign  a,  is  the  first  part  of  two  diphthongs. 

Say :  aisle,  owl  ice,  house  mice,  mouse 

Each  of  these  words  contains  a  diphthong,  and  the  first 
part  of  the  diphthong  is  this  kind  of  a.  We  shall  have 
more  to  say  about  these  diphthongs  in  sections  57,  68. 

Not  very  different  is  the  vowel  in  hut.     The  back  of  the  51 
tongue  is  raised  a  little  for  this  sound ;  we  shall  use  the 
sign  A  for  it. 

In  the  following  wwds  underline  the  letters  which  stand  for 
the  sound  a  : 

such,  mother,  butter,  trouble,  comfort,  blood,  blush, 
above,  rough. 

The  sound  a  is  only  found  in  syllables  that  have  some 
stress,  not  in  unstressed  syllables. 

Read  the  following : 

until,  uncover,  tea-cup; 

and  observe  the  difference  in  the  following  : 

come,  welcome.  circumference,  circumnavigate. 

Some  flowers  are  yellow  :  Here  are  some  yellow  flowers. 

We  noticed  that  when  we  said  i  (as  in  the  second  syllable  52 
of  manne)  we  raised  the  front  of  the  tongue. 

Say  a  and,  still  letting  the  breath  pass  out  and  the  vocal 
choi'ds  vibrate,  slowly  raise  the  front  of  the  tongus  until  the 
sound  is  i.     Do  this  three  times^  more  slowly  each  time : 

a...i        a i        a i 

Many  sounds  lie  between  a  and  i,  far  more  than  we 
need  for  English. 


36 


ENGLISH  SOUNDS 


53      The  first  common  sound  we  reach  on  our  way  from  a 

to  i  is  the  vowel  of  glad,  for  which  we  shall  use  the  sign  se. 

Say^  with  your  mouth  quite  open :  pa,  a     glsed,  Ised,  sed,  ae, 

then  say : 


a  — SB  —  a 


and  watch  the  tongue  with  your  mirroi: 

Some  people  raise  the  tongue  too  high,  and  say  thenks 
for  thanks,  ceb  for  cab,  cerriage  for  carriage  ;  but  this  raising 
is  only  right  in  any,  many  (not  in  manifold),  Thames. 


Say  the  following 

: 

cab,  cap 

stab,  sap 

fad,  fat 

cad,  cat 

bad,  bat 

sad,  sat 

mad,  mat 

pad,  pat 

bag,  back 

hag,  hack 

lag,  lack 

nag,  nack 

rag,  rack 

sag,  sack 

stag,  stack 

tag,  tack 

badge,  batch     cadge,  catch 

Does  the  same  ride  apply  here  as  the  one  you  fownd  after 
reading  card,  cart,  etc.,  in  section  49  ? 


54      If  we  raise  the  tongue  a  little  more  in  front,  we  reach 
he  first  vowel  sound  in  fairy,  there ;  for  this  sound  we  shall 
use  the  sign  e.     The  mouth  is  less  open  for  s  than  for  ae. 

Say :  a  —  se  —  e  e  —  se  —  a 


7 

7^ 

/]"  M>^ 

h 

^^^H 

/\ 

^^^1^ 

__ 

) 

mI 

I 

fA 

ther    / 

(a)    y 

=»- 

THE  SOUNDS  ae,  e  AND  e 


37 


FiThd  words  containing  the  sownd  e. 

The  sound  e  is  always  followed  by  the  letter  r,  which 
may  or  may  not  be  pronounced. 

When  the  letter  r  is  silent,  the  vowel  e  is  followed  by 
another,  rather  dull  sound,  for  which  we  use  the  sign  9. 
This  is  heard  also  when  the  r  is  pronounced,  but  then  it  is 
very  faint. 

Say :  fair,  fairy,  fairest ;  care,  caring ;  ami  notice  this 
difference  in  the  value  of  the  a. 

Say :  fair,  fat ;  hair,  hat ;  bare,  bat. 

The  sound  e  is  longer  than  the  sound  se.  We  also  use 
more  effort  in  saying  it ;  the  tongue  is  more  strained.  We 
therefore  call  e  a  tight  sound  and  se  a  loose  sound. 

The  next  front  vowel  is  the  e  in  pen^  for  which  we  shall  55 
use  the  sign  e. 
Say :     a  —  as  —  6  —  e  e  —  e  —  ae  —  a 

Watch  mth  your  mirror  what  happens  when  you  say  : 
6  —  e  —  6  —  e  —  8  —  e 


/  •  ^I T^ 

thEre"T. 

7 

iVU- 

Z 

ZmL 

I 

^^B 

X 

I 

1^ 

l    i^ 

rEin 

UAi 

-^.       f 

=A 

- 

Find  wmrls  containing  the  sound  e. 

Say  the  following : 
bed,  bet  dead,  debt        led,  let  said,  set 

beg,  beck        peg,  peck         edge,  fetch        sedge,  stretch 

What  do  you  notice  ?     Of  what  does  it  remind  ymi  ? 


38  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

56  The  sound  e  is  the  first  part  of  the  diphthong  in  rem, 
for  which  we  shall  use  the  signs  ei. 

Find  words  containhig  this  diphthong.  (Here  are  some 
examples :  aim,  fame,  way,  whey.) 

Say  this  diphthong  quite  slowly : 


i 


Notice  how  the  tongue  moves  from  the  e  position  to  a  higher 
position. 

Say  it  again,  after  placing  the  tip  of  your  little  finger  between 
yo^ir  teeth.  Notice  Iww  the  lower  jaw  moves  up  at  the  same 
time. 

Some  people  do  not  keep  the  tongue  so  high  when  they 
utter  this  diphthong.  Instead  of  starting  with  e,  they 
start  with  s ;  and  they  end  with  e  instead  of  i.  In  bad 
speech  the  diphthong  is  lower  still,  starting  with  se  or  even 
with  a. 

We  have  all  heard  this  pronunciation  and  should  not 
like  to  make  it  our  own. 

Bead  these  words : 

he  says,  he  said,  he  ate 
bargain,  captain,  fountain 
curtain,  villain 

In  a  few  common  words  of  one  syllable,  and  in  the 
unstressed  syllables  of  some  other  words,  the  diphthong  has 
been  reduced  to  e  or  a  looser  sound.  We  shall  talk  about 
these  very  loose  sounds  later. 

JFTiat  do  you  notice  abmit  the  foUoiving  woi'ds  ? 

babe,  tape  braid,  bait  fade,  fate 

made,  mate  laid,  late  staid,  state 

grade,  grate  raid,  rate  wade,  wait 

vague,  wake 


THE  DIPHTHONGS  ei  AND  ai  39 

There  is  another  diphthong   to   which  we   may   now  57 
return,  that  spelled  ai  in  aisle.     In  section  50  we  noticed 
that  the  first  part  of  it  is  the  sound  a.     We  may  use  for  it 
the  signs  ai,  but  as  a  rule  the  tongue  does  not  rise  high 
enough  for  i  to  be  reached  ;  it  does  not  get  beyond  e. 

Some  people  do  not  begin  with  a,  but  with  a  ;  that  is  they 
do  not  lift  the  tongue  a  little  forward.  Others  even  draw 
it  back,  so  that  by  almost  sounds  like  boy,  and  like  like  l&iJce. 
This  we  find  in  common  or  provincial  speech. 

Others  lift  the  tongue  too  much  and  start  the  diphthong 
with  se  or  even  e.     This  has  an  affected  sound. 

We  do  not  want  our  speech  to  be  either  common,  or 
provincial,  or  affected. 

Find  looi'ds  containing  this  diphthong,  and  arrange  them 
according  to  the  way  in  which  it  is  spelt. 

Find  pairs  like  the  following  :  bide,  bite ;  eyes,  ice. 

How  is  the  letter  y  pronounced  when  it  comes  at  the  end  of  a 
word? 


When  the  tongue  is  raised  higher  in  front  than  for  e  we  58 
obtain  the  sound  of  i  in  bit.     This  is  a  loose  sound,  like  the 
other  short  vowels  that  we  have  had. 

Say,  looking  at  the  mirroi' : 

a  —  38  —  6  —  6  —  i  i  —  e  —  e  —  ae  —  a 

Notice  how  the  lower  jaw  rises  as  you  pass  from  a  to  i, 
and  how  in  consequence  the  lower  row  of  teeth  approaches 
the  upper  more  and  more.  The  lips  also  change  their 
shape ;  when  i  is  reached  they  form  a  slit  opening,  as  is 
shown  on  the  next  page. 


40 


ENGLISH  SOUNDS 


a  e  I 

Find  words  containing  the  sound  i,  and  collect  pairs  like  bid, 
bit. 

59  In   some   unstressed   syllables   there  is   a  very  loose  i 
sound. 

Say  several  times :  lily,  lily,  lily,  stressing  the  first  syllable 
well.  Notice  that  the  second  rowel  {mitten  y)  is  different  from 
the  first. 

Some  people  give  the  unstressed  sound  the  same  value  as 
when  it  is  stressed,  which  sounds  odd ;  and  others  actually 
make  it  a  diphthong.     Then  fancy  !  sounds  like  fansay. 

This  very  loose  i  is  more  common  than  the  spelling  would 
lead  us  to  think. 

In  the  following  words  underline  the  letters  which  have  the 
value  of  the  very  loose  i  sound. 

houses,  fountain,  because,  deceive,  very,  silly,  before, 
wishes,  James's. 

Find  other  instances  of  this  sov/nd. 

60  What  is  the  second  vowel  sound  in  Tnarine  ? 

Say  bid,  drawling  it  so  that  the  vowel  becomes  long.  Then 
say  bead. 

The  vowel  in  bead  is  not  merely  the  lengthened  i  of  bid. 

Place  the  tip  of  your  little  finger  between  your  teeth,  and 
then  say  bee  several  times.  Notice  how  the  lower  row  of  teeth 
moves  up  and  the  tip  of  your  finger  is  pinched.  When  the 
lower  jaw  Tnoves,  we  know  that  the  tongue  moves  too. 


THE  i  SOUNDS  41 

When  we  say  this  sound,  our  tongue  moves ;  and  that 
always  means  that  the  sound  is  not  the  same  from 
beginning  to  end.  It  is  a  diphthong.  We  start  with  i 
and  raise  the  tongue  until  the  passage  is  so  narrow  that  a 
continuant  ( j )  results.  The  tongue  is  fairly  tight  while 
we  do  this.   We  might  then  represent  this  diphthong  by  ij. 

Say  ij  in  such  a  way  that  you  end  with  a  distinct  j. 

But  not  all  of  us  have  the  tongue  quite  so  high.  We 
may  start  just  a  little  lower  and  end  without  producing  a 
continuant. 

Then,  if  we  use  the  sign  i  for  the  lower  sound  we  may 
use  the  signs  li  for  this  diphthong.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
for  ordinary  purposes,  we  simply  use  i: ;  the  sign  :  is  used 
to  indicate  length. 

Some  people  have  the  tongue  lower  still,  and  then  please 
almost  sounds  like  plays  and  tea  like  tay.  This  is  not  found 
in  good  speech. 

Find  words  containing  this  diphthong.  Yon  will  n/)tice  that 
it  is  spelt  e  (as  in  cedar),  ee  (as  in  proceed),  ea  (as  in  seal), 
e  +  consonant  +  e  (as  in  cede),  ei  (as  in  ceiling). 

Collect  pairs  like  feed,  feet. 

When  the  letter  ?•  (silent  or  pronounced)  follows,  we  do  61 
not  get  this  rising  of  the  tongue. 

Say :    dear,  dearest ;  fear,  fearing. 

We  then  have  a  long  low  i  followed  by  another  sound 
which  is  quite  distinct  when  the  r  is  silent,  but  faint  when 
the  r  is  pronounced.  The  sign  for  this  sound  is  a,  and  we 
might  therefore  write  the  above  words  as  follows  : 

dl9,  di'rist;   fi9,  fi'riT). 


42 


ENGLISH  SOUNDS 


62  We  have  now  come  to  the  end  of  the  front  vowels, 
and  we  may  arrange  them  as  follows,  using  words  that 
contain  them : 


Short  vowels 


Long  vowels  and 
diphthongs 


lily     (loose  and  very  loose  I) 
bed    (e) 
glad  (x) 

bead    (i:  [ij  or  li]) 
bait     (ei) 
fairy   (s) 


We  have  also  had  the  sounds  a  in  father^  a  (part  of  the 
diphthong  in  aisle\  a  in  hut,  and  9  (at  the  end  of  air). 

63      The  back  vowels  will  appear  fairly  simple,  now  that  we 
have  dealt  with  the  front  vowels. 

Say  a  ....  u,  passing  very  slowly  from  a  to  the  somd  of 
u  in  true. 


7 

id 

/[-Nk 

»-" 

c 

_ 

— 

\ 

f/i 

ahe.r  7 

(a)     ;r 

=/ 

- 

Notice^  with  the  help  of  the  mirrm\  how  the  lower  jaw 
gradually  rises ;  at  the  same  time  the  tongiis  rises  at  the  hack. 
Do  your  lips  change  their  shape  while  you  pass  from  a  ^o  u  ? 

The  back  vowels  may  be  uttered  with  lip-rounding,  and 
they  sound  better  when  this  is  done. 


BACK  VOWELS 


43 


Say  i  —  u  —  i  —  u,  giving  the  space  between  the  lips  the 
shape  of  a  slit  when  you  say  i  and  the  shape  of  a  small 
rmmd  hole  when  you  say  u. 

Now  pass  slowly  frma  a  ^o  u,  g^-adually  rounding  the  lips 
more  and  moi'e. 


The  first  sound  we  have  to  consider  is  that  of  the  o  64 
in  not^  for  which  we  shall  use  the  sign  o. 

Find  wards  containing  this  sound. 

Utter  the  sounds  keeping  your  mouth  well  open,  and  watch 
the  position  of  the  tongue. 
For  0  we  draw  the  tongue  back ;  the  tongue  is  loose. 

Find  pairs  of  words  like  the  following  :  hob,  hop;  rod,  rot; 
dog,  dock. 

Some  people  make  the  o  quite  long  before  a  voiced 
sound;  for  instance,  they  pronounce  dog  as  if  it  were 
written  dawg.     This  is  not  to  be  imitated. 

Sometimes  the  o  is  made  long  before  the  voiceless  sounds 
f,  s,  6,  as  in  off,  coffee,  soft,  officer ;  cross,  cost ;  cloth,  froth. 
It  is  better  not  to  make  it  long  in  these  words. 


44 


ENGLISH  SOUNDS 


65  There  is  a  long  sound  oz,  which  is,  however,  rather 
tighter  than  the  short  o.  This  o:  is  found  in  caw,  foughty 
stalk ;  and  those  who  do  not  pronounce  the  letter  r  in  core, 
f<yt%  stmk  use  oi  in  these  words  too. 


/I  IS^I  1  1 

J__L 

\,,\ 

•H 
^ 

m 

\ 

t- 

fAther' 

I 

(0)          . 

\ 

J\- 

Fiiid  woi'ds  containing  the  sound  o:,  and  pairs  like  cawed, 
caught ;  broad,  brought. 

In  words  like  four^  nwre^  where  no  sound  follows  the 
letter  r,  some  add  the  dull  e  sound  which  we  met  in  air 
(section  54),  and  dear  (section  61).  It  is  better  to  utter  oz 
without  this. 

Say :  four  apples,  four  pears ;  more  ink,  more  water. 

There  are  words  which  have  two  forms,  with  and  without 
the  sound  r.  This  leads  careless  people  to  add  r  where  it 
should  not  be  and  to  say,  for  instance,  the  law-v-of  England. 

See  whit  was  said  in  section  41. 


We  all  know  how  to  pronounce  the  word  aunt;  the 
vowel  is  az.  It  is  the  only  word  in  which  aun  is  pro- 
nounced in  this  way  by  everybody. 

Collect  words  containing  -aun- ;  you  ought  to  find  about  a 
WTmt  is  the  vowel  you  utter  in  these  wards  ? 


THE  0  SOUNDS 


45 


The  sound  o  is  the  first  part  of  the  diphthong  in  oil^  for  66 
which  we  may  use  the  signs  oi. 

Say  oi  slowly^  watching  with  your  mirroi-  how  the  tongue 
moves.     You  can  also  feel  the  movement,  if  you  try. 

As  in  ai  the  last  sound  is  usually  a  very  low  i,  and  may 
even  be  e. 

Fitid  wards  containing  the  diphthong  oi,  aiid  arrange  them  in 
three  groups,  viz.  with  the  diphthong  (a)  followed  by  a  voiced 
sound,  (b)  followed  by  a  voiceless  sound,  (c)  final. 


We  now  come  to  what  is  generally  called  long  o,  as  in  67 
oh,  no. 

Say  oh !  drawling  it  out.  Say  oh  several  times,  quickly. 
Put  a  finger  between  your  teeth  as  you  say  it;  what  do  you  notice  ? 
What  does  this  Tnean  1 

The  sound  is  not  a  simple  long  vowel ;  it  does  not  remain 
the  same  all  the  time.  The  tongue  rises,  and  the  lower  jaw 
too;  and  the  lips  may  also  become  more  rounded.  We 
start  with  o,  but  end  with  a  higher  vowel,  with  u ;  so  we 
shall  use  ou  for  this  diphthong. 

Say :  potter,  poetic ;  fodder,  photography,  paying  par- 
ticular attentimi  to  the  sound  of  the  first  o  in  each  wm'd.  In 
potter,  fodder  we  have  o;  but  in  poetic,  photography  the 
o  is  higher  and  Twt  so  loose,  and  foi'  this  we  use  the  sign  o. 


;r-''  1> 

mm 

All     7 

/r^'Wi 

46  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

We  notice  that  ou  among  the  back  vowels  is  just  like  ei 
among  the  front  vowels  (see  section  56). 

Say  slowly  ei  and  ou,  and  notice  in  each  case  a  similar  rising 
of  the  lower  jaw. 

Some  people  keep  their  tongue  lower  when  they  say  this 
diphthong ;  they  start  with  the  lower  vowel  o  and  do  not 
get  beyond  o  at  the  end.  Some  actually  begin  with  the 
front  vowel      and  then  pass  through  o  to  o. 

Try  to  say  this  aeoo.     You  will  not  like  the  residt. 

Find  wm'ds  containing  the  diphthong  ou,  and  collect  pairs  like 
road,  wrote. 

Make  a  list  of  words  beginning  with  thep'efix  pro-  and  notice 
how  the  o  is  pronownced. 

58  There  is  a  diphthong  that  we  may  notice  here,  which  is 
written  ov,  in  house.  The  first  part  of  it  is  a,  as  we  saw  in 
section  50 ;  from  that  the  tongue  rises  until  it  reaches  o  or 
a  low  u.     It  is  therefore  somewhat  similar  to  ai  (section  57). 

Find  wo7'ds  containing  this  diphthong ;  also  pairs  like  loud, 
lout. 

Some  do  not  begin  the  diphthong  with  a,  but  with  the 
higher  vowel  se  (as  in  fat). 

Try  to  say  house  with  the  diphthong  aeu.  If  you  have  any 
tcTidency  to  this  p'onmiciationj  learn  at  once  that  it  must  he  avoided 
at  all  costs, 

69  The  last  front  vowels  were  the  short  and  loose  I  and  the  1: 
which  is  really  a  diphthong  (ij  or  li).  The  last  back  vowels 
are  a  short  loose  U  and  the  u:  which  is  really  a  diphthong. 

For  the  short,  loose  vowel  in  pid,  foot,  we  may  use  the 
sign  U,  though  u  does  well  enough  for  ordinary  purposes. 

Find  words  in  which  this  vowel  occurs  (a)  before  voiced  sounds, 
(b)  before  voiceless  sounds. 

Find  instances  of  silent  u  and  ue. 


THE  u  SOUNDS  47 

We  were  able  to  determine  that  the  i  in  machine  repre-  70 
sents  a  diphthong. 

Say  this  sounds  and  then  the  u:  mitten  oo  in  food.  Watch 
carefully  what  happens.  If  you  see  no  change  at  ally  and  feel 
none,  then  ymt  are  uttering  pure  long  voioels.  This  may  he  your 
rmtural  way  of  producing  the  sounds. 

The  sound  u:  is  usually  a  diphthong,  and  may  begin  with 
a  fairly  high  u  with  small  lip  opening,  and  end  with  a 
higher  u  and  the  lip  opening  so  small  that  a  continuant  (w) 
results.  Or  it  may  begin  lower  (with  U)  and  end  lower 
(with  u).  The  correct  signs  for  the  diphthong  would  then 
be  uw  or  Uu  \  but  ui  will  do  for  ordinary  purposes. 

Say :  poor,  poorer,  poorest ;  assure,  assuring.  71 

Generally  speaking,  when  oo  or  u  is  followed  by  the 
letter  r,  silent  or  pronounced,  we  have  the  long  and  rather 
low  sound  U:. 

Sometimes  this  sound  has  become  ox,  for  instance  in 
dooi',  floor.  Some  people  change  the  sound  of  pom'  to  some- 
thing like  paw,  and  sure  sounds  as  though  it  were  written 
shaw ;  but  we  shall  do  well  not  to  copy  them.  In  quick 
speech  the  vowel  of  the  word  your  is  short  o  or  o. 

Find  words  containing  u:  and  others  containing  U: ;  also 
pairs  like  rude,  root. 

Very  often  we  find  the  combination  jui  or  ju  (see  72 
section  42). 

In  the  following  wwds  linderline  twice  the  letters  that  have  the 
value  o/ jui,  and  once  those  that  have  the  value  of  in. 

union,  unite,  few,  sue,  value,  feud,  you,  use,  dew,  hue, 
usurp,  beauty. 

Find  pairs  like  feud,  refute. 


48  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

Read  the  following  words : 

lute,  flute,  absolute,  blue,  luminous,  illumine,  allude, 
allusion  ; 

jury,  June,  sure,  sugar ; 

rude,  true,  ruby,  ruse. 

What  do  you  notice  about  the  words  with  lu- 1 

Read  the  following  words : 

creature,  nature,  feature,  venture; 

leisure,  pleasure,  measure,  censure  ; 

seizure,  azure; 

usual,  casual,  sensual,  visual. 

73  The  back  vowels  are  now  complete,  and  we  may  arrange 
them  as  follows,  using  words  that  contain  them  : 

short  vowels  put  (u) 

poetic  (o) 
pot  (o) 

long  vowels  rude  (u:  [uw  or  uu]) 

and  diphthongs   poor  (u:) 
pole  (ou) 
paw  (o:) 
poison  (oi) 
pout  (au) 

74  We  have  met  with  the  dull  sound  a  several  times.  It  is 
short  and  loose,  and  occurs  only  in  unstressed  syllables,  as 
in  the  second  syllable  of  father^  or  aftw  other  vowels,  as  in 
aw",  pooi\  dear. 

Say: 

beggar,  beggars,  gather,  gathered,  leopard,  shepherd, 
dotard. 

Notice  that  before  a  voiced  sov/nd  the  9  is  lengtfiened. 

The  long  sound  o:,  rather  less  loose,  occurs  in  stressed 
syllables. 


PHONETIC  SPELLING  49 

In  the  foUomng  wai'ds  imderline  twice  the  letters  that  have  the 
value  of  91  and  once  those  that  have  the  value  of  a  : 

bird,  labour,  turn,  learn,  fir,  furl,  murmur,  work,  enter, 
inter,  interfere,  fern,  purpose,  burr,  pearl,  curl,  burner, 
performer,  surplice,  word,  surprise,  certain,  concert,  absurd, 
word. 

Find  pairs  like  heard,  hurt. 

We  have  now  learned  the  signs  that  we  are  going  to  use  75 
for  all  the  sounds  of  our  language;  and  it  will  improve 
our  knowledge  if  we  take  words,  split  them  up  into  sounds, 
and  then  write  them  down  with  these  signs, — the  phonetic 
signs. 

Write  doum,  by  means  of  the  phonetic  signs,  the  following 
woi'ds : 

split,  grin,  twist,  himself,  rest,  met,  kept,  best,  left, 
spend,  put,  spirit. 

Some  words  are  the  same  in  the  phonetic  and  in  the 
ordinary  spelling,  but  usually  there  is  a  difference. 

Write  down  the  following  woi'ds  phonetically : 
resting,  then,  intense,  inch,  bell,  thing,  filling,  render, 
think,  fish,  limbs. 

In  some  words  only  the  consonants  show  a  difference. 

Write  down  the  following  wards  phonetically  : 

faint,  take,  not,  man,  very,  only,  several,   pond,  time, 

won,  duty,  life,  into,  talent,  wait,  heaven,  freedom,  glorious, 

unfold,  treated. 

In  some  words  only  the  vowels  show  a  difference. 


50  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

fFrite  down  the  following  woi'ds  in  the  m-dinary  spelling : 
feis,  bikoz,  kAnit),  roiol,  fi^goz,  lou,  djuiti,  peznt,  fo:^, 

91^,   oid9,   iitj,   biznis,   Qpobdsi,    gud,    okwaia,   sitjueijn, 

sould50,  5ouz. 

Each  of  the  following  rep-esents  two  m'  more  wmds  {for 
instance  houl  represents  hole  and  whole) : 

houl,  rait,  stoik,  nait,  neiv,  nou,  alaud,  roud,  friiz,  witj, 
au9,  SAn,  dAn,  nAn,  wAn,  hoil,  fai,  sAm,  haia,  soul,  dai,  siiz, 
wiik,  teil. 


76  This  has  given  us  some  practice  in  using  the  phonetic 
signs,  but  we  do  not  speak  in  single  words.  Words  are 
uttered  in  groups.     We  do  not  say : 

We  I  have  \  lessons  \  every  |  morning 

with  intervals  between  the  words,  but  we  say  the  whole 
sentence  without  stopping  anywhere.     When  we  say 

We  have  lessons  every  mo7-ning,  and  also  on  four  aftenixxms 

that  is  too  much  for  one  group;   we  divide  it  into  two 
groups,  with  a  break  after  mm-ning. 

The  punctuation  marks  often  show  where  there  is  a  break; 
but  sometimes  we  do  not  have  this  help.  A  good  reader 
does  not  laboriously  read  single  words;  he  looks  ahead 
and  knows  where  to  make  his  pauses,  when  he  can  draw 
breath.  It  is  the  necessity  of  drawing  breath  that  makes 
us  divide  speech  into  groups ;  and  we  therefore  call  them 
breath  groups. 

Take  ymir  reading  hook  and  copy  mit  a  paragraph,  then  divide 
it  into  breath  groups  by  means  of  upright  lines. 


STRONG  AND  WEAK  FORMS  51 

In  a  breath  group  the  syllables  are  not  all  uttered  with  77 
the  same  force.     Some  are  stressed,  others  are  unstressed. 

In  the  follomng  sentences  imderline  the  stressed  syllables. 

He  came  to  see  me.  When  did  he  arrive  1  There  were 
not  many  people  on  the  river.  I  wish  I  could  see  him 
more  frequently.  Did  they  win  or  lose  ?  Go  and  ask  her 
to  stop  playing  the  piano. 

Some  words  in  common  use  are  sometimes  stressed  and  78 
sometimes  unstressed.  When  they  are  unstressed  they 
appear  in  a  shortened  form.  We  say  that  such  words  have 
a  strong  form  and  a  weak  form.  As  examples  we  may 
take  the  very  common  words  a  and  the.  When  we  refer  to 
them  we  say,  for  instance,  /  said  a  [ei]  rrmiiy  not  the  [Six] 
man.  These  are  the  strong  forms.  As  a  rule,  however, 
we  use  the  weak  forms  [a]  and  pa]  before  consonants,  as 
in  [Sa  kau],  [5i]  before  vowels,  as  in  [Si  oks]. 

Write  phonetically  : 

A  man  sat  at  the  table,  by  the  open  window. 

In  our  language  there  are  many  words  with  strong  and 
weak  forms  : 

(i)  common  verbs :  has,  have,  had ;  is,  are,  was,  were ; 
can,  could,  shall,  should,  will,  would. 

The  weakest  forms  of  some  of  these  are  shown  in  the 
ordinary  spelling  :  He's  done  it^  Fve  seen  him,  I'd  been  there  , 
he's  old  ;  I'll  do  it,  I'd  like  to. 

There  are  other  weak  forms,  however,  of  which  the 
ordinary  spelling  gives  no  hint.  Thus  we  pronounce  was  as 
[woz]  and  had  as  [haed]  only  when  we  stress  them;  the 
usual  forms  are  the  weak  [woz]  and  [had]. 

Find  the  weak  farms  of  all  the  verbs  given  above. 


52  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

(ii)  pronouns :  he,  him,  she,  her,  his,  we,  us,  you,  your, 
them,  who. 

The  weak  forms  of  some  of  these  (he,  she,  them,  us,  you, 
your)  yovj  will  find  without  difficulty.  In  your  speech  there 
may  he  no  weak  forrm  of  him,  his  m^d  some  others.  If  you 
listen  carefidly  to  quick  conversatimi,  you  will  often  find  that  him, 
his,  when  unstressed,  lose  tJie  h  sound.  You  will  find  this  in  the 
quick  speech  of  quite  well-educated  people. 

(iii)  prepositions :  of,  to,  from. 

When  unstressed,  of  becomes  [av]  and,  in  a  few  expres- 
sions such  as  o'clock,  [a] ;  to  becomes  [to]  before  consonants, 
but  remains  [tu]  before  vowels,  except  in  very  careless 
speech  ;  from  becomes  [fram], 

(iv)  conjunctions  :  and,  but,  as,  or. 

Find  the  weak  fm'ms  of  these. 

Read  the  following  sentences  in  a  natural  tone  of  voice,  and 
then  underline  the  words  of  which  the  form  is  weak : 
He  had  been  there  as  often  as  I  had. 
We  were  going  to  see  them. 
I  should  have  liked  to  visit  you. 
He  was  going  for  a  walk  with  his  brother. 
I  gave  her  her  hat. 
I  wonder  whether  he  can  do  it. 
We  are  always  getting  letters  from  him. 
What  are  you  thinking  of  ? 
It  was  not  I  but  you  who  did  it. 
He  said  that  that  was  not  what  he  had  hoped  for. 
I  have  sold  many  of  the  books.     How  many  of  them  ? 

79  In  compound  words  the  stress  is  generally  on  the  first 
part,  and  the  second  part  (being  unstressed)  is  often 
shortened. 


STRESS  53 

Write  phonetically : 

penny,  halfpenny,  sixpence  board,  cupboard 

day,  Sunday  fast,  breakfast 

land,  England       mouth,  Portsmouth        ford,  Oxford 

WTiat  do  you  notice  about  the  first  part  of  the  following  com- 
pound woi'ds  ? 

halfpenny,  threepence,  breakfast,  forehead,  shepherd. 

Some   words  of  two   syllables    sometimes    have    both  80 
syllables  stressed  and  at  other  times  only  one. 

Bead  the  following  sentences : 

It  fell  by  the  wayside.     He  came  to  a  wayside  inn. 
He  was  fifteen.     Here  are  fifteen  shillings. 
These  pictures  are  Chinese.      We   had  some   Chinese 
lanterns. 

Put  accents  on  the  vowels  of  the  stressed  syllables  in  the 


High  Street,  Park  Lane,  season  ticket,  steel  pen,  baking 
powder,  Hyde  Park,  blotting  paper. 

Put  accents  on  the  vowels  of  the  stressed  syllables  in  the  follow- 
ing sentences : 

He  absented  himself.     He  was  absent. 

He  conversed  with  him.     The  converse  is  true. 

She  presented  it  to  me.     It  was  a  nice  present. 

What  is  the  chief  produce  of  this  country  1  It  produces 
corn  and  wool. 

They  protested  against  these  proceedings.  They  made 
a  formal  protest. 

Can  you  find  a  i-ule  ? 

Stressed  syllables  are   not  all   uttered  with  the  same  8 
amount  of  force;  some  are  more  strongly  stressed  than 
others. 


54  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

Put  aceents  on  the  stressed  syllables,  marking  with  two  accents 
(")  those  vith  stronger  stress : 

A  friend  in  need  is  a  friend  indeed. 

Half  a  loaf  is  better  than  no  bread. 

Do  not  put  off  till  to-morrow  what  you  can  do  to-day. 

'Tis  but  an  hour  ago  since  it  was  nine, 

And  after  one  hour  more  'twill  be  eleven. 

She  sat  like  patience  on  a  monument. 

A  maid  whom  there  were  few  to  praise, 
And  very  few  to  love. 

82  We  may  now  test  our  knowledge  of  the  sounds  by  writ- 
ing in  the  phonetic  script  connected  passages.  Here  are 
some  examples  : 

When  the  first  baby  laughed  for  the  first  time,  his  laugh 
wen    Sa  foist  beibi     laift  |  f9   Sa  faist  taim||hiz  laif  | 

broke  into  a  million  pieces,  and   they  all  went  skipping 
brouk  intu  9  miljon    piisiz  {|  9nd   Sei      oil  went  skipip 

about.  That  was  the  beginning  of  fairies, 

obaut  I  —  I  Sset  W9z  Sg     biginii)    av  fs9riz   |  —  | 

They  all  gathered  round  Peter      to  hear    what  was  the 
Sei    oil    gseSa'd   raund  piit9  ||  tu     hi9  |  wot    W9z  Sa 

wish  of    his  heart,    but    for   a   long  time    he  hesitated, 
wij    9V  hiz     halt  ||  bAt  |  f9r   9    lor)  taim  |  hi   heziteitid  || 

not  being  certain   what  it  was    himself.  *  If  I  chose 

not    biiii)    S9itn  |    wot  it  woz  |  himself  |  —  |  if  ai  tjouz  | 

to  go  back  to  mother,'    he  asked  at  last,    '  could  you  give 
to  gou  baek  t9  mA^g    ||    hi  aiskt    9t  laist  ||  kud     ju     giv 

me  that  wish  '\ ' 
mi  Sset    wij  |  —  | 


PITCH  55 

You  will  notice  that  we  have  not  marked  the  stresses. 
This  we  might  do  by  underlining  the  vowels  of  the  stressed 
syllables,  or  by  putting  accents  on  the  vowels  or  before 
the  syllables,  thus :  him'self. 


There  is  something  else  that  is  not  shown :  the  raising  83 
and  lowering  of  the  voice,  what  we  call  the  pitch  of  the 
voice. 

Read  the  following  sentences^  paying  particular  attention  to 
the  pitch : 

Where  are  you  going "?    I  am  going  home. 

Here  are  some  apples  and  pears. 

Which  do  you  like  better,  apples  or  pears  ? 

He  was  very  sorry  to  hear  it,  so  he  said. 

I  wonder  what  he  will  do  next. 

AVhat  is  the  good  of  writing  such  a  letter ! 

Write  the  letter  at  once  ! 

You  are  writing  the  letter  ?     Yes,  I  am. 

I  am  simply  delighted  ! 

Is  your  exercise  book  tidy  or  untidy  ? 

Bead  a  paragraph  from  your  reading  hook,  first  in  a  mono- 
tonous voice,  then  with  suitable  raising  and  lowering  of  the  voice. 
('  Monotonous '  originally  meant '  all  in  one  tone,^  that  is,  keeping 
the  same  pitch  all  through.) 

If  we  change  our  pitch  very  little,  our  speech  sounds 
dull  and  uninteresting  ;  if  we  change  it  too  much,  it  sounds 
unnatural.  If  we  always  speak  in  a  high-pitched  voice, 
it  gets  on  other  people's  nerves ;  if  we  speak  with  too  low 
a  pitch,  it  sounds  gloomy  and  depressing.  We  must 
speak  so  as  to  express  our  meaning  well,  with  an  agreeable 
voice. 


56  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

84  We  do  not  always  speak  at  the  same  rate.  In  ordinary 
conversation  we  speak  more  quickly  than  when  we  are 
reading  a  fine  poem  aloud  or  reciting.  When  we  speak 
slowly,  we  pause  more  frequently  to  take  breath,  and  so 
our  breath  groups  are  shorter.  We  also  do  not  reduce  the 
unstressed  syllables  so  much  as  in  ordinary  conversation. 
If  we  recite  a  poem  in  the  same  way  as  we  talk  to  a  friend 
about  the  latest  cricket  or  net-ball  match,  we  take  away  a 
great  deal  of  its  beauty.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  talk  to 
a  friend  as  if  we  were  reciting  poetry,  it  sounds  silly. 

Sometimes  we  hear  a  passage  very  well  read,  or  a  poem 
finely  recited,  or  at  the  theatre  an  actor  or  an  actress 
speaks  beautifully.  Then  we  feel  how  splendid  our 
language  is.  It  is  a  great  thing  that  we  should  have 
books;  but  the  written  language  falls  far  short  of  the 
spoken  words, — when  they  are  well  spoken. 

Not  many  of  us  are  called  upon  to  address  large  gather- 
ings of  people,  to  preach,  to  lecture,  or  to  perform  in 
plays ;  but  all  of  us  have  to  do  some  speaking,  and  we  can 
all  speak  well  if  we  make  up  our  mind  to  do  so.  Few  of 
us,  perhaps,  can  play  a  musical  instrument  well ;  but  we 
have  a  wonderful  instrument  in  our  voice.  Although  we 
may  be  unable  to  sing,  we  can  speak  in  such  a  way  as  to 
give  pleasure. 

85  What  must  we  do  in  order  to  speak  well  ? 

We  must  breathe  properly,  filling  the  lungs  well. 

We  must  speak  in  breath  groups  of  the  right  length,  not 
gabbling  hurriedly,  and  not  becoming  faint  (dropping  the 
voice)  at  the  end  of  every  breath  group. 

We  must  speak  at  a  suitable  pitch;  our  speech  must 
not  be  shrill  or  sepulchral,  it  must  not  become  monotonous 
or  sing-song. 


HOW  TO  SPEAK  WELL  57 

We  must  use  the  sounds  that  educated  people  make,  and 
not  copy  the  sounds  we  hear  vulgar  or  affected  people  use. 

We  must  pronounce  the  letters  that  educated  people  pro- 
nounce, and  not  utter  those  which  are  silent  in  their  speech. 

We  must  not  jerk  our  words  out,  or  mumble. 

We  must  avoid  all  peculiarities  of  our  own.  Speech  is 
given  us  to  express  our  thoughts  and  we  want  people  to 
know  our  thoughts  without  being  disturbed  by  anything 
unusual  in  the  pronunciation.  When  we  read  a  letter 
that  is  badly  spelt  or  in  a  bad  handwriting,  it  disturbs 
us  by  drawing  our  attention  from  the  thoughts  it  contains 
to  the  faulty  way  in  which  the  thoughts  are  presented. 
When  we  listen  to  a  person  speaking  badly  (whether  it  be 
slipshod  or  affected  speech),  it  disturbs  us  in  the  same  way; 
we  keep  on  noticing  the  faulty  and  disagreeable  form  in 
which  he  expresses  his  thoughts. 

A  great  deal  of  course  depends  on  what  we  have  to  say.  86 
If  we  talk  without  being  sure  what  we  mean  to  say,  our 
words  will  get  tangled  up,  and  not  be  pleasant  to  the 
listener.  If  we  do  not  distinguish  properly  between 
important  and  unimportant  things,  we  put  our  thoughts  in 
the  wrong  order.  If  we  talk  foolishly,  we  shall  give  no 
pleasure,  however  well  we  may  use  our  voice. 

In  the  same  way,  when  we  are  reading  aloud,  we  must 
let  our  eyes  run  on,  so  that  we  may  take  in  the  meaning 
and  read  with  good  expression,  pausing  at  the  right  places. 

When  we  are  reciting,  we  must  always  understand  what 
we  are  saying,  or  else  our  expression  will  be  wrong. 

We  must  therefore  think  before  we  speak,  and  speak  so 
as  to  convey  our  thoughts  in  the  clearest  and  most  pleasant 
manner.  Then  our  words  will  have  the  best  effect;  then 
they  will  be  really  living  words. 


EXERCISES. 

1.  Arrange  the  following  words  in  groups  according  to  the 

value  of  the  ch : 
fetch^  such,  chemistry,  rich,  stitch,  imechanic,  machine,  church, 
reach,  hatch,  chivalry, 

2.  Arrange  the  following  words  in  groups  according  to  the 

value  of  the  g  : 
gem,  age,  edge,  gone,  gaol,  goal,  fatigue,  weigh,  lodge,  girl, 
gin,  gimlet,  garage,  wedge,  night,  guest,  gnat. 

3.  Arrange  the  following  words  in  groups  according  to  the 

value  of  the  u : 
butter,  busy,  burden,  regular,  minute,  flute,  sun,  pidl,  duty, 
lettuce,  solution,  hush,  push. 

4.  Arrange  the  following  words  in  groups  according  to  the 

value  of  the  o  : 
women,  pot,  poet,  potato,  pony,  wolf,  folly,  foliage,  police, 
fond,  to-day,  glo^'y,  whose,  fog,  do,  dot. 

5.  What  is  the  first  sound  of  the  following  words  : 

whether,  one,  chair,  whom,  journey,  psalm,  wiite,  whole, 
gnaw,  photograph  'i 

6.  In  the  following  words  underline  the  vowels  that  are 
silent : 

guest,  business,  head,  heart,  leisure,  venison,  leopard,  buoy, 
guide,  doid)le,  build,  handkerchief,  definite,  more,  plague, 
build,  fugitive,  bread,  guardj  breakfast,  barley. 

58 


EXERCISES  59 

7.  Give  the  phonetic  spelling  of  th«  following  words : 

cough^  though,  thrmigh,  hough  ; 
gone,  stone,  one,  done,  bone,  shone ; 
goes,  shoes  ;  shows,  cows  ; 
good,  food,  floai',  poor,  door,  mood  ; 
sure,  pure,  nature,  leisure. 

8.  Write  in  the  phonetic  spelling  the  past  tense  of  the 

following  verbs : 

sleep,  kneel,  read,  flee,   creep,    leave,    deal,    meet, 
.,  feed. 

9.  "Write  in  the  phonetic  spelling  the  days  of  the  week,  the 

months  and  the  numbers  from  one  to  twenty ;  also 
as  many  Christian  names  as  you  can  think  of. 

10.  Find   other  words   having  the   same   sounds  as  the 

following : 
threw,  fur,  not,  hare,  right,  fined,   missed,   daze,  place, 
rowed,  steak,  poll,  nave,  isle,  miner,  dye,  red,  steel,  hole, 
bawl,  h-ake,  no,  new,  nose,  week,  wood,  praise,  peace,  due, 
co^irse. 

11.  Each  of  the  following  words  has  two  meanings;  make 

up  short  sentences  containing  them  : 
lead,  row,  hear,  art,  hound,  read,  leaves,  bowls,  sticks,  sow, 
felt,  well,  spoke. 

12.  Make  up  sentences  containing  the  following  words : 

trough,  gaol,  committee,  illustrated,  inquiries,  anemone, 
zoological,  aghast,  balsam,  forfeit,  colonel,  mither,  valiant, 
viscount,  math,  trophy. 

13.  The  third  person  singular  of  the  present  indicative  is 

formed  by  adding  the  letter  s.     When  is  this  letter 
pronounced  z  ? 


6o  ENGLISH  SOUNDS 

14.  The  past  participle  of  many  verbs  is  formed  by  adding 

■ed.     When  is  this  pronounced  t  ?    When  is  the  e 
pronounced  ? 

15.  What  do  you  think  of  the  following  rhymes  : 

slower  J  dom^;  desirey  higher-,  hour,  flower-,  store,  poor; 
clerk,  spark ;  wm'ds,  birds ;  chanted,  haimted ;  men,  again  j 
rose,  clothes ;  forehead,  horrid ;  college,  knowledge ;  pretty, 
witty ;  aye,  day ;  jolly,  melancholy  ? 


TORNBOLL   AND  SPEARS,   PRINTERS,  EDINBURGH 


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